


Mortal Kombat: A Forced Hero

by TimedWatcher



Category: Mortal Kombat (Video Games), Mortal Kombat - All Media Types
Genre: Anal Sex, Complete, Dickgirls, F/M, Futa on Male, Futanari, Oral Sex, mk9, mortal kombat 9
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-12
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-09-25 03:28:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9800783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimedWatcher/pseuds/TimedWatcher
Summary: Awakening in a world unknown to him, his mind and body are tested not by the elements, but by the women that inhabit it.





	1. In Evening Air

Falling.

He had no idea why he was falling. He had several dreams where he had the sensation of falling. Nothing like this though. This was the real deal. The winds were beating his face back and he had to squint his vision as a result. His body twisted and turned in the sky as he careened towards several trees. He tried to reach for any branch he could, but he was either too late, or they were too weak to support him and snapped in his grasp. One he did manage to latch onto, quickly skinned his hand as he slid right off it. Lucky for him, he had plenty of these things to break his fall.

Although there were several other things he thought were gonna break.

First his face, which sent him for a whirl clockwise and placed a dull fog on his brain. His arms and legs took mach speed beatings. He was almost out of it when his back hitting a particular strong one made him react with a noise. Then his front, then his back. His descent, finally, was coming to a close.

Not without a few more trees to smack the living daylights out of him though.

Then it stopped. He nervously laughed, resting in this soft gathering of leaves.

Reality came a knocking when he slipped through those.

Hitting the bank of a slope, he was thrown face first to the ground below. His body, as expected, was weak from the fall and he was out of breath. His nose acted like a stand for his face as his mouth did all the work for his oxygen.

When the dust finally settled, he peered out of one eye to his surroundings. It was green and forest-y alright. Yet. It didn't feel like any kind of forest he'd ever been in. The leaves didn't look like any kind of leaves he's ever seen. Yeah. That's what he needed to be doing. Critiquing the fauna.

Pushing off the gravel... even the rocks here didn't look right. He looked up to the skies. It was a dark blue. Night was coming soon and he had an uneasiness of staying any longer.

================================

No owls hooting. No wolves howling to the moon. These were the makings of one of the worst places to be right now. There had to be something wrong here.

Then he heard it. His ears kicked up. The deep brush of the forest rustling its leaves. He turned to see something... anything. He resumed his pace, hoping to not pay it any mind, wanting to write it off as the wild life of the forest.

He turned with a sharp speed when he heard it again. The only movement then was his ripped long sleeve shirt as it blew in the wind. He could feel it now. A presence out there. Now it seemed to know he knew. It wasn't subtle anymore as he heard running feet.

Out of the darkness, a creature snarled and charged. The only thing that kept him alive in that moment was the moonlight bouncing off its sharp appendage to warn him where the monster was in the first place. It didn't take much to have him scrambling. 'Give me wings', was his last thought before instinct took over. Behind him was the sound of one runner, then two, then three, then many more started clamouring behind him. In their blatant animal behavior to drive fear, a few of them began popping their large blades and scraping them along the pathway.

Light. Light in the horizon of darkness. He didn't know where it came from, but he hoped for life. Somebody to help him.

No. He begged. No please. There was nothing here. Just two pillars of flames and a mat. If somebody had been here, they were long gone.

But it got worse. So much worse.

As if placed there by the devil of the night, he hit a hard snag that sent him flying into one of the flaming pillars. The loud ringing clang it sent out could have alerted the long dead from centuries past. The skin on his chest had been rubbed raw from the landing he had previously, the soreness in his bruised chest flared up. He had to pay it no mind though as he scrambled back up.

But it was too late. They had surrounded. He now could see his attackers with more focus. Their horrible goblin like faces weren't dissimilar to something on a Halloween night, but they possessed rows of sharp teeth like you wouldn't believe.

An aspect of these monstrosities that he now had time to think about was that they wore clothes and were bipedal. Yet they were completely bestial. Would reasoning power even work on them? Clearly not as they got closer to his cowering figure.

Out of the heavens came a figure, he didn't have much time to see it as it came down upon one of the threatening bladed creatures with a stomp that sent a rumble through the ground, that swept him off his feet. Even a few of those creatures took a tumble. He was about to try and see what it was, when at floor level, he came face to face with one of the creatures. It was the one that took the landing, mooshed underneath strange brown coloured feet, its expression frozen with its widened mouth, almost like it couldn't believe what happened to him.

They had something in common.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAARH" He gulped at the elongated battle cry. What threw him off more than anything, was that it sounded feminine. A deep voice, but feminine nonetheless. Was it possible an angel was sent to save him at the last moment? He peered up. It wasn't a winged beauty. It was a multi armed war goddess with movements full of rage. In one fell swoop she made short work of them. After crushing what he could guess was their leader, they had backed off, then one charged, and all it took for her to take it down was just a kick to the face. He saw teeth flying in every which way. He was scared enough to think he was gonna get clipped by the shrapnel for a second. It seemed unreal seeing her command her arms so effortlessly to swat them like flies.

One of the creatures had had enough and charged her, two blades and all. He was about to open his mouth to warn her, when the extremely tall and graceful figure easily dodged both swing attempts, resulting in a sound that even made him cringe, as she gripped onto his ankles, crushing them, then proceeding to swing him like a tornado of death. They were like dandelions getting their heads and bodies popped off in extravagant showers of blood and gore. There was no way this was real life. No way she was an angel.

He was just thankful he had taken another fall.

When all was said and done, her final show was to raise her lethal weapon above her head using her bottom arms, then raising her top arms to its head. The creature still had fight as it kicked away in an attempt to escape. A sickening, effortless snap came out, as its front facing head became a back facing one. He almost felt like what she did was directed towards him in some way.

There was a long pause. Her back to him. The only noise to break the tension was when she the let rag doll of a body fall. He hated to say it, especially after saving him, but the musculature of her ass had his eyes locked. It was so firm and tight looking that he had barely taken notice of other things like the animalistic spots on her back and biceps. Her tiny red spandex outfit just left little to the imagination. Although he still imagined plenty.

"Foolish Edenian." Her voice boomed out. "What were you doing so far out in the forest when Tarkatans use this as hunting ground?" She turned, arms folded... other arms at her sides.

Although she was quite ample, the first thing that got his attention were her glowing eyes. Even in the distance separating them, they locked onto him and he locked onto them. She possessed a hard face that had seen many battles. Along with a down turned, hook nose. Her face read of an angered aggression. You could say she wasn't happy, but he guessed she always looked like that.

Good god her abs. Did he mention the abs? He wanted to risk death just to feel them. Or maybe just get on her regiment.

She towered... he couldn't stress this enough. Towered like a red wood would over a pine tree. She raised one eyebrow. He looked away as she stomped forward, like she could read his mind. He then felt those three fingered hands on whatever remained of his clothes as he was hoisted up. 'Please no' he said internally while closing his eyes. "Tarkatans can smell blood for miles. I suggest you be more careful." He popped an eyelid open to see... her flat board stomach. She had pulled him to his feet. His eyes searched upwards, although he tried to respectfully look past her massive boobs. He was surprised to see her covered up. Her back made her seem totally nude to the naked eye... he had to stop thinking like that. Stepping back to even get face to face with her, he looked up to see her other features. She had bones protruding from her skull in a perfectly uniform fashion, the pointy kind, you wouldn't want to get into a head butting contest with her, or an arm wrestling contest or... her hair was carefully cropped in a mohawk ponytail combo.

He could imagine this being a fashion for girls one day.

What got him was that she had nary a speck of blood on her despite that display. "You... you saved me."

With a resounding bellow, she replied with a glower. "And you interrupted my session", came the unamused tone.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." He stuttered out. He was gonna mention how he ended up here, but he imagined she would not believe something so ridiculous... "I just woke up in these woods."

"You're just another poor cretin who couldn't pay off his debts from those games Edenians play. So they dump you here as retribution." That wasn't what happened. But her accusatory tone made it seem like he did do something that stupid. Like a mother talking down to her child. He even began rubbing his right arm.

"I guess it's a good idea for me to leave." He said, turning his back, hoping to worm away. Not wanting to thank her, not wanting to know what an Edenian was or get to know the name of the person... or thing, that saved him. He just wanted to get out of here. It wasn't even a few steps before he felt a grapple of his shoulder.

"Do you not know the customs of my species Edenian?" She squeezed, not painfully, but almost in an attempt to remind him of something he had no knowledge of.

"N-no." He answered truthfully and hoped he would not receive penance for an honest answer.

Her voice seemed to twinge positively, which seemed impossible considering that even speaking lowly, it was still like talking to someone without volume control. "It is customary in Shokan culture for a person that had their life saved by one, to give the Shokan in question anything they ask."

He gulped. "I can't offer you anything. Even you say I'm just a poor gambler."

She had a hard throaty laugh at his expense. "Yes I suppose you are. What I do want is something you can offer however." He felt another strong hand on his opposite shoulder now and although he resisted at first, he was quickly forced forward. He was about to question why he didn't go face first into the road. Her large hands had wrapped around his pelvis, all four holding him in position. What she had planned he had no idea.

A squeeze of his ass left no more questions.

He begged and pleaded with her. "If I demand it of you, it shall be so." Sheeva stated flatly, then proceeded to undress his lower half without much struggle on his part. He wasn't in a position to fight back against such a commanding force of nature. His pants pooling at his feet, Sheeva began spreading his ass, her thick fingers getting a good feeling for his behind as she massaged them in different directions. "An ass fit for a Shokan." She seemed to say to nobody.

He felt her hands move from his shoulders to his head, forcing it down to where his chin meeting the top of his chest. His vision able getting a sight between his legs, specifically his limpness and Sheeva's legs. "Now Edenian. See what can inspire fear even in the bravest of Shokan men." Sheeva proudly proclaimed. The front of her outfit trembled and he didn't get a second to wonder what it was as it exploded forth. From where he was, the brown meaty appendage dangled right beside his genitals. Like night and day, he couldn't help but compare the two. Putting it that simply didn't do it justice. Where his adequately sized junk barely left his crotch area, her rough skinned snake had almost reached down to his knee caps. Her two tennis balls not far behind.

He had wondered where she must have hid that thing. He wasn't sure what he had expected when she had grabbed his ass in the first place. Maybe some strong amazonian fucking. Not a strong amazonian dicking.

Joking aside, he fought hard. Even in that strong grasp of hers. It proved futile once again as his head was let loose and her hands had taken up residence on his forearms. "Experience the true might of my people." Sheeva hissed as she grabbed her hose and placed it at his back end.

He had blacked out for a moment when she had started.

It could roughly be described as somebody repeatedly shoving a long blunt leather instrument up his insides. The cherry on top was the feeling of every time she pushed or pulled inside him, he could feel miniscule tears inside him, due to what he could describe as bits of glass on the tip of her torture rod.

Her balls were fearsome as they slapped against his ass. They were seemingly built to remind him of his subservience to her.

All the pain flowing throughout his nervous system, he collapsed to his knees. Although it was less his doing and more of Sheeva's now furious ramming that forced him down. She could have taken him like a rag doll for all the input he had in this. It truly had been like two animals rutting together. One dominant, the other forced to take it without a shred of pleasure in return. With one last pull down, the gargantuan amazon let out a shout. The only feeling of pleasantness throughout the whole ordeal was her coating of his insides, it masked the pain of her painful intrusion.

"Raping another subject of mine again, Shokan?" Out of the shadows of the night came a voice... a very female voice. That was followed up by sharp clicks of high heels as a woman in blue emerged from the wilderness. With perfectly coiffed hair and a stiff looking stomach, she strode forward with a sashayed walk.

"This does not concern you princess." She gut punched him again with her cock and he sobbed out a very loud whimper.

"Any Edenian under attack is my concern." As if out of nowhere, blue fans emerged in her hands. They weren't just a fashion statement. They looked like they meant business with the blades protruding from several points. "If you were as strong as you say, then you'd be forcing your fellow Shokan and not weak mortals."

Sheeva let out a ferocious roar as her latest victim fell to the wayside. Her large extremity bounced to and fro in the air as she charged at this scantily clad woman, her several arms bared. Just as she reached out for the azure ninja, in one fluid motion, she had hopped over, hands still clutching the fans. It was no unspectacular feat considering the Shokan's height. In that same moment, Sheeva turned back to face her, but was caught with her pants down as the princess crouch turned and held a fan blade right near the flesh of her wagging womanhood.

"I wonder how your people treat those without their symbol of power." He heard a low growl and that's all it seemed to take before the... Shokan, disappeared into the trees.

The words of appreciation he meant for her, for what she had done. They had begun sputtering and eventually fell away from his mouth with a mumble. What he mainly wanted to do was apologize for not being of her race.

His body gave up the ghost.

Kitana walked over, hooked this ragdolled boy by his back and legs, and began leaping home.


	2. Inch of Dust

He awoke to the slight sting of his flesh. He had thought it was injuries he had received before hand coming back to bite him, but it was a whole new sensation. His eyes opened to see lush velvety pillows and whats more, underneath him was a silky smooth texture. He knew what transpired wasn't a crazy dream and he hadn't just woke up from it, for one simple reason:

He never had a bed this good.

"You're awake I see." He didn't have to turn his head to know who it was. His body tried to raise up but she was forceful with her hand. "No. You have extreme wounds that need medical attention. Lay." He didn't argue. As her fingers continued to stir along his back with the concoction, he couldn't help but feel guilty. "This is an ancient healing mix that dates back many generations of our people. It works almost instantaneously."

That was it. "Lady I am not-"

"Kitana."

She was quick on the draw. "Kitana... I am not an Edenian." He revealed like it had been some grand scheme he had been hatching.

"I know." She replied without a care as she began working the goo on his arms.

"You do?" Remembering what she looked like, she seemed like any human girl. Well. A human girl that had a well used membership to her local YMCA.

"It's quite easy to recognize my own people. I knew from the very moment I saw you."

"So... are you adopting me into it or just providing political asylum?"

"Maybe." He really wanted to give her a funny look for that answer.

"Turn." His chest was already on fire. He hadn't wanted to stir the ire of his back. However Kitana did seem like she knew best. He put on a preemptive cringe when he flipped over onto his back, as he expected the worst possible feeling. Yet, there was no pain.

The facial mask of hers she wore when she saved him from that beast of a woman was missing, leaving her beautiful facial features on display. At least he thought so. With her lush lips in contrast to her firm jaw, she definitely wasn't a glass princess.

Undoing what was left of his shirt, Kitana seemed surprised at what was underneath.

"Did Sheeva do this to you?" Kitana questioned as she felt the skinned flesh of his chest, the concern in her voice shocked him. Did she truly care about him?

"No. Don't worry about it. I got these from falling from the sky." He stated in an ambiguous tone as to whether he was joking or being serious.

"However you got them, I'm glad they are not worse... for your sake." She finished by applying the lotion she had been telling him about, gliding her fingers across his chest.

The pain faded in more and more places. He couldn't believe how effective it was.

"When you said instant, you meant instant." He once again tried to lighten the mood despite the extreme pain he was feeling in one last place he dare not mention.

Kitana shifted, the side fo her face revealing an uncertainty in her. As if about to break some horrible news. "There is one more place you were hurt and it must be dealt with urgently." Speak of the devil. He knew what area she was referring to.

He turned away from her. "It hurts but... please, it's embarrassing enough."

"I've seen what that weapon of hers has done to other Edenian men. You need treatment. Now." She was quite firm this time.

He was annoyed. "What makes you say that?"

Kitana had popped out her fan blades and in a metal whoosh, proceeded to slice something. Kitana held the back of his pants up to his face. He had bloodied himself without realizing it. He covered his eyes with the palms of his hands. He was a failure as a man. He was gonna die from getting raped.

"There is something I can do." The tears were flowing past his wrists and down his face. "It's drastic, but it's the only way."

He had wondered if he should just die right now. Save himself the embarrassment.

Without much effort on her part, she pulled his hands away to see the tear soaked face of his that he wanted to hide. Kitana slipped a hand upon his cheek and held him as she enveloped him for a kiss.

A renewed zest for life revitalized thin him in that moment. He gently placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed her away. "I trust you." Escaped his weary lips.

================================

Kitana inserted three fingers into the curdled healing formula. There was a sound of suction as she pulled them from it, along with a large amount of the warm gel to work with. Laid up on his back, he watched on as she methodically stroked her length, pulling her foreskin back and forth, her purple head gleaming with precum. This was not out of her own personal pleasure, but to make sure every inch was dripping with the aid.

Once again he seemed to fight logic as nervousness hit him, the size of her member made him reconsider even doing this. "Shouldn't we do this somewhere else? This is your royal bed. I don't want to-" She had placed a single finger on his lips to shush him. Point well taken.

"I do this not for me, but out of necessity for you."

"Can't it be both?" He smiled weakly up to her. Seeing her turn her head away from him, he couldn't help but think she had smiled too.

Feeling the results of his back and chest, he knew this was possibly the best option he had right now. He just didn't have to like it.

Her hand smoothed against his stomach, much like when she was giving him that treatment and that seemed to relax him as he exhaled. Her hand then turned firm on his stomach and she pushed into him. There was a squish and his face reacted to a pain that wasn't there. "I'm in." She assured. He almost laughed. It was like getting a needle. The imagination was much worse than the reality.

Kitana slipped in easier than she thought. Looking down, she was ecstatic there was nothing but a look of bliss on his face.

For her part, she was extremely delicate. Taking it as slow and steady as necessary. There was a part of Kitana that wanted to just let herself go, drop all civility and drive into him like that Shokan. Yet she held firm in her pace, for one day, she would, but that was not this day.

As Kitana slowly worked him, he felt like he could get used to this. Not having to do a thing to give her pleasure. She just had to give and she received. Was it really this easy for women?

Then it happened. The air was sucked out of him as he felt it. Something was happening down there. Something he didn't like.

As he whined out in pain telling her to get it out, Kitana froze. "I don't understand. What's wrong?" She tried to pull out but he had encircled her with the insides of his ass. Her healing of him had an adverse effect: She made him an anal virgin again, and pushing her away seemed to make things worse.

Kitana panicked as she saw him writhe about. Grabbing at her neck piece, she unhooked something and the clothing that covered her chest flapped down. Exposing herself to him was a kind gesture, but did little for the pain he was going through. With a whimper, he held out both his arms, wanting her closer to him. She came down upon him, their faces cheek to cheek, chins locked into one another's shoulders. Her large tits pressing against him, her hardened nipples grinding against his skin, which spurred her on to clench her ass and pump him hard.

Kitana's hands were like claws as they dug deep into her bed. She hadn't intended to use him like this, but the warmth she felt emanating from him was driving her crazy. Although it ruined the surprise for their wedding night.

After several deep grunts, she shot deep within him, but she wasn't the only one that got off. Wrapping her hands around his body, she held him tight as she gave him her final humps. She forced her seed into him as much as she could before exiting with a pop. Both sticky with sweat and spunk, their lips mashed together as she collapsed onto him, their fluids sticking their bodies together as the remaining droplets from Kitana's now dissipating cock dribbled onto him.

As she laid exhausted, he wanted to whisper something in her ear. Yet as he mustered up the courage to say it, he dozed off.

================================

The door burst open and there was a scramble of guards in heavy clanking armor. "Seize him!" The high pitch of what had been said sent a puncture throughout his head. He looked to see who was giving the orders. It turned out to be a rather ghoulish looking older woman, who despite everything, had an extremely high bust that was not at all hidden from view. Did anybody dress like a normal person here? Arms and hands had pulled him from the bed while Kitana on the other hand leaped towards those that had him.

She once again proved to be a princess of battle rather than civility. With the numbers game however, even she was bested by these anonymous assailants. Both him and Kitana were both dragged in front of the woman with the skunk coloured hair. "Mother, what is the meaning of this!?"

"You were with a man of non Edenian lineage. You know we do not allow such things unless the one seeking your hand provides the kingdom with something in return."

"But mother-"

"Silence!" She could deafen somebody by whispering. Imagine what she does just loudly speaking. He looked to Kitana for hope, and she looked to him, defeated. Even somebody as independent as she seemed to be, was still a slave to family.

"I have to thank you again Sheeva. Your information proved useful once again."

Sheeva stepped through the entrance to the room, bowing forward. One hand on her stomach and the others splayed out. "It is my pleasure to serve Edenia, Queen Sindel." An eye of hers peaked out to the two lovers, vigor restored in Kitana, she reacted with a lunge and furious anger in the hard grasp she was in.

"Mother! How can you work with these barbarians?" She asked with a jerk.

"Shokan have served as bodyguards to Edenian royalty for centuries my dear." Sindel raised off her feet and floated around Sheeva, who remained perfectly still. "They too have served as our eyes and ears, among other things." With a wave of her hand towards Kitana, she spoke emphatically. "Take my daughter somewhere to be held for the remainder of his visit. But not just anywhere. She is a princess after all." She floated to him as the guards dispersed. "As for you boy... I must request your time."

Despite Kitana's many screams and physical protests, she was dragged off. Even to the last moment she fought to see the man she had given her love to.

"May I join you mistress? He may try something." Sheeva once again tried to put on elegance to her servitude, but it was as fake as her initial kindness to him.

Sindel had grown weary of the four armed dragon born. "No. Your duty is well served and you are to retire to your quarters. Understood?"

"Yes... mistress." Sheeva obeyed, but left in a huff.

Closing the distance between them, a cold and clammy hand met his cheek. "We shall see why my daughter took a shining to you." Being this up close and personal with the witch, her soulless, milky white eyes were now obvious. He guessed it didn't run in the family.

She snapped her fingers and he was deposited to the ground, the guards that once held him scrambled out of the picture and the doors to the chamber clanked closed. "You lacked bite with my guards. I take it you're not well versed in the arts of combat. Strange. My daughter took well with a man who had won the tournament several times before." Giving him a once over, she began again. "You must attract her in... some other way." With that said, the armor that seemed molded to her figure, floated away from her body, revealing an aged pale nudity. The tear drop forms that covered her breasts were the last to go. It was quite the difference between the young Kitana whose nipples were a dark pink, while her mothers were a shade of brown. Her hour glass figure could still give any woman less than half her age a run for their money.

At this point, seeing her large pale cock wasn't a surprise. What did surprise him was that like the rest of her, her penis and sack had aged flawlessly. He personally had more wrinkles in that one area than she possessed in her entire body.

Was he really admiring that aspect of her? Really? He tried to argue that Kitana had one. So he was gonna have to readjust to this radical new aspect of women.

'Readjusting' might have been one way to say it. Another way of saying it was 'being thrown off a cliff without a parachute'. Sindel had sent her hair after him like it was alive and reeled him in like she caught a fish. He had little time to react as it restrained tightly around his arms and chest.

Floating in the air, she bent back, like she had taken a seat. Her stiffness pointing up in the air like an awaiting spike, ready to skewer him. He hung above it, legs kicking, like somebody about to be put on the gallows.

"Please. I love your daughter." It was about the only thing he could think of in hopes of stopping this.

"That's what got you here in the first place!" All that good will of Kitana healing his ass went out the window as he was unceremoniously brought down upon Sindel's large girth. It was still painful like the first time. Nowhere near as bad as Sheeva's horse cock that ripped him to shreds, but this wasn't an improvement.

Her hair worked him effortlessly up and down, he could feel every inch of her. Her head whipped back as she let out a cackle. "Ah yes. My daughter knows how to pick her whores well." At this, she placed both hands upon his cheeks and really began fucking him. It sent a shiver throughout his body. The sensation was strange... her chilled skeletal like grip clashed with the warm sensation of her dick inside him. It almost felt good. Almost.

It seemed like the crescendo of her assault as she had begun picking up her speed. "You are not worthy of my essence, but I shall make an exception!" Wanting to gauge how close she was to finishing, he tried to find any tells in her body language. One thing she did was raise her head inch by inch every time he bobbed on her length. It seemed like she was gonna break something permanently with the way she was contorting.

A dedicated low moan hummed in her throat. She had to be close. He was caught off guard, however, when he felt a sudden snap upon his chest, and breathing became more and more difficult. He gave it one last shot to squeeze out of the enwrapping hair. His fists balled and he strained...

The last thing he felt was Sindel rocketing her load inside him before everything went dark.

================================

He jump started like he had awoke from a bad dream. Breath exhilarated. His eyes wide. No... this wasn't a dream. He reached up to wipe his nose, as he did, he saw the accessory that Sindel had bestowed upon him. Weighted chains kept him tied to the wet stone of the bleak dungeon he had been placed in. Peering in the darkness across from him, a crumbled ivory white figure stared mindlessly back. He too had been wrapped in chains. It made him wonder when the last time they cleaned this place was.

Besides when he rustled his chains, the only other sound was a sporadic drip that echoed throughout.

Until he heard a small grunt.

He would have figured it had to be Kitana. Yet he knew her voice quite... intimately. So he knew whoever it was, it wasn't Kitana. He also ticked out any of the other women he has met on his adventure in pain. This wasn't anybody he knew. That was the one thing he could say without a doubt in himself.

Tack. Tack. Hard clicks of heels, much like when he first met Kitana, except more pronounced on the stonework. Had she come to save him?

"I am Jade. Kitana's sister." Her name alone described the colour of her outfit, in a dress similar to her sister minus the hanging sash between Kitana's legs.

He couldn't tell at first how they were related. She possessed much darker skin than Kitana for example. The connection between the two came to fruition when she pulled down her similar green mask to reveal her face. She was a dead ringer in many ways.

Besides the killer abs, he meant.

"She wanted me to deliver a message." His head and ears perked at this information. His sullen eyes brightened amongst all this darkness. The woman in green leaned closer, and he tipped himself to her expecting a whisper. He instead got her fingers on his chin and a sharp turn of his head as she engorged him in a kiss that was quite similar to Kitana's. His somewhat sloppy kissing in return left him open for Jade's tongue to infiltrate. He almost pulled back at this. He was more than hesitant to do that with somebody other than Kitana.

Something in him finally relented. Whether it was the fear of his own mortality or wanting to be in some way close to Kitana again, their tongues met together, but as soon as he joined her, she pulled away, leaving him in a confused stupor.

"Was that the message?", he disappointingly asked.

Jade was pulling her mask back on when she responded. "Yes. And she made me practice it many times."

Wait what? He didn't have time to think about that. He needed to ask her one thing. "Did Kitana say anything? About us, I mean."

"Yes."

"Does she..." He was hoping Jade would catch on with what he meant, not wanting to say it.

"More than I could ever understand." Was that a shot against him or Kitana? He still couldn't help himself as a small smile appeared on his face. Now he stared at the tiled floor, expecting Jade to walk away and leave him to stew.

"Your trial is tomorrow. I suggest you get some rest."

At least he got something he wanted...


	3. As I Fall

Raising her finger in a theatrical fashion, Sindel thrust it out towards his direction. "I banish you to the fleshpits!"

Ignorant of what that was, he was in no position to ask however. He was hauled by several of her men over to a standing bit of metal, shaped like a long bit of bone, with a guard waiting, resting his hand on the top of it, he heaved back, pulling on it like a lever. There was a clank and he heard a working of gears as an opening formed before him. He only had a second to examine the pit of darkness that was to be his fate, then without a pause, he was tossed into it.

He expected to fall forever, like a bottomless pit, instead, he landed with a loud thump as his weak flesh pancaked against the ground. Staring up, the wind knocked out of him, the light above him now fading. He just couldn't do anything about it. Not even his fear of being alone in never ending shadows didn't get him to desperately try something. He took his fate lying down.

As it finally closed, with no clear hatch or opening to it, his trepidation grew.

Then he realized that he could still see it. He wasn't submerged into a black nothingness never to be heard from again. Although getting a sense for the alternative, he wasn't sure that would have been the worst option. Pulling himself back together, he rubbed the sore spot that broke his landing. Where the hell was he? He at first made an educated guess at it being an old torture chamber. Yet as he got closer and got a view of the implements up close, it had to be some type of... mad doctor's lab. Rusted hacksaws, hooks and sickles among other things were strewn about as he came upon a knocked over kart. Near it was a metal gurney, despite mostly having fallen apart, he could still see a sheen of old blood that had spurt across parts of it. Turning, there were placements for glass tubes, all of them completely shattered. The place was a regular Frankenstein freak show.

A realization made goosebumps sprout on his neck and his body sweat. The fleshpits weren't meant to hold him. Whatever was down here was gonna seek him out and kill him. Maybe it was just one, maybe it was a pack of them or maybe it was the good doctor.

Maybe for once... he'd fight to protect himself.

Reaching to the ground he slid the crude instruments around, wanting the least effected by rust. Not out of personal preference mind you. He eventually decided on one of the crescent moon shaped sickles. The bonesaws seemed too flimsy and the hooks had too short a range. This had potential to slice from a distance while still being effective in close quarters. As he lifted it, it scraped against the ground, emitting a nails on chalkboard like screech. Whatever was down here had to know of his presence now.

That's when he heard the crying as it echoed throughout.

His eyes shifted trying to figure out the source. Tightening his hands onto the handle of his weapon, he held it forward, shakily leading the way. As the noise of the wailing got clearer, he experienced a sense of familiarity with the voice. It clicked in his head. Kitana wasn't at his trial. She was put down here.

Turning a corner, he had to have been close. The noise was muffled no longer. Now he wished this was something he could erase from his memory. Kitana's naked body was the furthest thing from his mind seeing her curled up in the fetal position, her hands covering her face. Her once long luscious hair, cut short. He respected her too much to see her like this now. Broken. Who could do this to their daughter?

He needed Kitana's strength now more than ever, and not in a physical sense. Maybe he had to remind her. Without a second thought, he dropped his weapon. A loud clash rang out as it ricocheted against the floor.

It was the biggest mistake he made since he got here.

The crying stopped in an instant, like a flip of a switch. With a turn, the woman he thought to be his lover and protector revealed its ghastly visage. His blood ran cold. The fathomed ideas of creatures had ran through his head while down here, but none proved as haunting as this in his fantasies. The body of a model, the face of a demon.

There was a phrase that kept running through his mind as his eyes now flicked towards his discarded weapon, his fists tightening in fear.

This isn't Kitana... This isn't Kitana...

Her jagged smile ran from ear to ear in a permanent unchanging grin. Her animalistic eyes were similar to Sheeva's, but the four armed woman had a cold and calculating life behind them. The thing before him now was wide eyed and had an intellect on what he guessed was an instinctual level. Crumpling forward onto her hands and feet, her body slithered inch by inch towards him. Then she bolted at him like an arachnid.

He turned and ran.

The noises she made were like a panting dog by way of a deranged woman. Shifting his head to see behind himself, he hoped to get an idea of her position in correlation with him. Just as he saw her leaping from spot to spot, she flew right at him with open arms.

On reflex he had turned to anticipate this and had put his hands up, unintentionally they pressed into her large mammaries, but that did little in stopping her from sending them both down.

Landing hard and wishing her fun bags broke his fall, he reacted faster than anything he'd ever done in his life, throwing his hands at her in a thousand hand slap, she was much faster at batting them away like it was a game to her. Eventually, she seemed to grow tired of it as she brought down his hands to his sides and really bared her teeth at him as she let out a wet hiss. She was right up close and personal and he could feel that hot humid breath all over the side of his face. Even though he turned his cheek to cower away, he could see that long tongue of hers roll across the back of her teeth, salivating at the idea of what he imagined was taking a big chunk of his face.

He closed his eyes expecting the worst. What he got was a psychotic giggle. "I'm so glad they gave me another toy to play with. Especially after I got tired of my old one." The creature said, putting long emphasis on 'glad', as she maneuvered him through the middle of her breasts, then pulled him by his hair, up close to that gaping hole of teeth that was her face. "Don't you want to play together?" Her head slanted to the side, voice coming close to sounding akin to a child. Naturally he shook his head in disagreement, but it did little to sway her as her maw of teeth opened, her tongue worming its way out.

Bobbing and weaving in an attempt to dodge her tongue, as for all he knew her saliva could be acidic, it wagged about in front of his face and pressed into his chin, and with a slimy lick, it left a long streak in an almost perfect line across his lip and nose. He wasn't exactly amused about it, but peaking out an eye, she definitely was.

When he was starting to get used to the idea of being slobbered on, she seemingly grew tired of her new toy and looked like she was about to crawl away. This was probably his fastest rejection here, or anywhere.

No. She wasn't turning tail to run. However she still had something long and hanging that was wagging above. His mouth hung open, staring into the fleshy erection, mesmerized by how smooth and hairless everything seemed to be. A bit of morning dew was seeping through the top, and of all the luck in the world, a droplet came down and perfectly hit the inside of his lip.

Like a fussy child he began spitting whatever he could and he tried to look away. His sight fell in between the both of them. Her hand stroking his hardness. Now when did he get like that?

That horrible face of hers flew down to meet his gaze, hair and features hanging upside down. He almost shrieked in fright. "If you don't know how to please a woman, maybe my mouth could make you into one." She said with such glee, pointing to her rows of teeth. He gulped, and understood what had to be done.

Placing his hands in the crevices of where the thighs met the groin, he stared back into that length of hers. Specifically her small red slit that was on front of the head. This is where urine came from. Who knows what a creature like her tasted like down there. He brought himself up with an uneasiness. This wasn't like Sheeva or Sindel where he was physically forced. He was being willed by a threat to do this. His gums tweaked and twitched. He expanded his mouth into an 'O' shape, as he didn't want it anywhere near his wet lips. The feeling of the heat radiating from her cock head, and another drip deep down into his throat from her excited length, he had decided to get it over with.

There was a salty tang, much like the initial taste he had earlier, and despite erections being described as being hard, hers felt spongy with a lot of give, despite having a firmness to it.

"Ooooooooooooooooooh." Her ravenous voice cooed. "I think you deserve a treat!"

Seeing as she got easily bored with licking his face, he hoped she wasn't going to move on to bending him over and...

He was caught off guard when he heard the snap and he started coughing and shotgunning air around her member. He could feel her tongue constrict around his prick. It was hard to describe. Wrapping it around him like that made him feel every point and vein he had. He thought he was familiar with his genitalia, but he had no idea what some of those things on him were. It was like a blind person touching somebodies face, except in reverse.

The pleasure was so mind warping, he hadn't noticed she was face fucking him now. He began thrusting in kind, albeit in instinct. The hot breath from her hissing and the wetness of her tongue working in tandem, along with wringing his meat, was driving him to a peak he hadn't expected.

He unloaded like a fountain, his cum leaking down to each individual wrapping of her tongue. His hands scratched mindlessly at the hard floor, his eyes almost rolled into the back of his head, which rolled back and forth, feeling like he wanted to snap his own spine into place. If he had any gag reflex, it wasn't available as she finally pushed deep and shot hard past his tonsils. When he started softening, the clouds in his mind started clearing and now he could taste what he swallowed, which just made him want to throw up. He regretted every second of it now - and when he had hoped it was over, she didn't seem to shrink like he did.

She sat up, resting on her haunches, her ass right on top of his face. "More. More. MORE!" She punctuated her demands with thrusts deeper than the last. When he thought he was gonna go through another gag fest - or even just choke to death - his body reacted. Placing his hands on her thighs in hopes of escaping, he felt like he should have known better. There was no escape.

Then a voice called out, and so much as when he resigned himself to his task, it snaked out of his mouth. 

Not that he was complaining.

"Sisssssssssssster. How could you use this little morsel without usssssssss?" Pushing herself off by his ribcage, the creature who had been using him suddenly tightly wound her arms around his body. Once again being placed between a pair of breasts he didn't want to be anywhere near.

"I found him! He's mine!" Besides the fact that he was already as close as he could be, he felt her grasp tighten in an almost deathly fashion. He was glad she hadn't placed them around his neck. Despite that, he was able to stare up between those knockers of hers and see her genuinely aghast. He figured she couldn't even do that with her face. Although he... loved... looking at her, he was curious now and wanted to see who or what was out there. Who was this 'us', this thing was talking about? Who else is down here? More importantly, why did she sound exactly the same?

He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Maybe landing like he did hurt him harder than he realized. After doing a double take, it was confirmed. He was seeing two of them. Nary a distinguishing feature between the two of them. Although ones cock was certainly slicker than the others...

Lucky him.

The doppelganger did little waiting as she continued toward them unopposed. It wasn't like he could run away at the moment. "You know we sssshare, sissster."

Her voice seemed to be worried in the worst possible way. "But they always wear them out and they stop being fun! Or worse!" Clearly she only had his best interests in mind.

"I know... I know... but we could have a little fun with him before we have to inform the otherssss." That seemed to brighten the face of his captor. He was sure if she had a tail, it would be wagging right now. Strange. He wasn't exactly giddy. Although it did seem to distract her enough to let him go, which enabled him to scramble for a second and raise up to his knees. Maybe she was more level headed.

"Listen, please you-GLCK"

Out of nowhere, she had him hooked like a fish, finger nails digging into the corners of his gums. "You have to try his mouth. It's deviiiiiiiiine." She was presenting him to the newly arrived 'sister', and that dick was coming right for him. All he could do was count the seconds he had left. Besides being unhooked, she placed the tip in with little fan fair.

She ran her fingers through his hair as she felt the hot wet warmth of his mouth hole wrap around her. "Yessssssssss..." She hissed with satisfaction as her hands left him and pressed into her large, firm tits. It wasn't as bad the way this second monster jaw was treating him compared to the first. He refused to suck like before, but she made due.

His eyes popped open and tears welled up as she brought him deep down her hardness, nose mooshed against her groin, his chin resting on her sack. It wasn't the gag reflex. He had forgotten about the one who started this whole mess. She had just entered his ass.

She may have turned him into an expert in deep throat, but he was still a novice when it came to the back end and he didn't feel like he was gonna get there anytime soon.

Even though they looked the same, they didn't act that way. Their movements exactly the opposite of one another. He wasn't able to get a rhythm going and it was frustrating as one began to thrust and another pulled. Even though he hated thinking this way, he remembered that threat not too long ago. He wanted to see Kitana again. In one piece. Would she still respect him after this? Being raped by a Shokan was one thing, but getting it from two of these ugly things?

Things continued, when despite all this, he could feel the atmosphere change. There was more of a presence now. Growing. He knew he wasn't paranoid. He could hear the giggles and snarls. Despite his senses being all over the place as he was thrust into, both ways from Sunday, in the corners of his eyes, he saw them. He swore he did.

They both seemed to be coming to a finish, but the cock shoved in his face placed first as it released. It was a thick load that he had to hold in his gums until she finally took it out, seemingly satisfied. He spit out the gunk the first chance he got, like it was expired milk. When he went to wipe his lip of any remainders, his shocked reaction of there being twins was nothing compared to what he was seeing now. They weren't just twins, in fact, they were more than just triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets. It was like an army of them, and this time, neither were identical. Some were taller, some were smaller, some were... prettier, although he was quite loose with that one. Some were more horrifying than they usually were. What was worse, is that they were all chomping at the bit. A few couldn't wait for the festivities to begin and had already started stroking themselves.

All this as he was awe struck, gazing in horror, as he was getting humped endlessly from behind. Coming in second place, his original rapist finished inside him, he could feel her cock engorge and unleash torrents of the stuff as she let out a gutturally satisfied groan. His muscles instinctively relaxed as she exited him with a squish, her ejaculate seeping. The reality of the situation however, quickly made its existence known. No image of horror was comparable to these monstrosities with their tools of destruction of various sizes at the ready as they surrounded him. It was a haunted houses version of a hall of mirrors. He didn't even get a word in.

================================

His torture down there was a long and painful one. Time became lost in this dark pit of lust. His mind a many of times tried to blank the activities out. There was no respite to be found with them. He performed feats that would make a sword swallower reconsider. Yet it was never enough. Even after he vomited, and he could feel remnants of the acidic bile in his mouth, they continued using him regardless.

His ass to say the least, had seen better days... better days with Kitana... his teeth gritted, his fists clenched. Whatever fog of war he was under, this malaise he was feeling, it had to end. It was one thing to act tough, it was another being around these sleeping giants. He had to tread carefully.

Trying to figure out his next move, a relaxed yawn croaked out, his eyes and body at the ready. He had barely the time to suck in his side as he dodged the feminine hand that attempted to restrain him. He held his breath tight, not making a peep. When he saw the closed eyes of her, he exhaled his relief. As he laid there, staring into the sleeping beasts face, it was almost... not ugly.

Okay, he had been here way too long.

Ever so slightly and daintily as he could, his head rose, as far above all the naked bodies that had piled around him. Maybe some existed out there that would find this position appealing. He was not one of them. Surveying the only potential path out of here, it would be a close one, but he'd have to try. Curling into a fetal position, his hands pushed himself off the ground. Now standing on the highest reaches that one could be on ones tippy toes, he stepped first between the ass and legs of one, now he moved again, his foot landing between a stretched out set of thighs. So far so good. The next step would be the most dangerous as he had to place his foot between two faces, they had conjoined together in a hug. Oh shit. His heart skipped a beat at the feeling of that dog like breathing down on his right foot. The ball of his foot already felt soggy and gross, but he'd have keep going. Had to keep his head in the game. Only a couple more steps and he'd be out of this mine field of flesh. The worst part was trying to keep up his strength. Standing on your toes for extended periods isn't as easy as it sounds.

Then, the worst thing that could happen, happened.

The thighs he had tried resting his foot between was now clenched tightly. Trying to wrench it out while standing on a moist foot proved to be disastrous. It was like watching a statue topple in slow motion, and he could only watch as he was about to head butt one of them. There was that hard bump, as his body collided with some of them. This... sneak attack, yeah, thats what it was, wouldn't last long. He clambered like a lobster amongst boiling water, nailing elbows down into squishy masses in a bid to escape. He could feel the claws of them just narrowly missing him, and instead, leaving nasty red marks across his arms and back. Everything was silent to him as he had one goal.

Survive.

It was almost like he checked out at the hotel of the mind and came back in. He was farther away from them than he thought he'd ever get as he ran into the unknown void that seemed to stretch forever. Might have been the adrenaline running through his body. It was fear that gave men wings and this was that moment, but he had to stop thinking and just get doing.

He had the advantage initially, he was like a thief in the night as many of them were still asleep even after knocking a few of them awake. Now they had to be all together as he heard their demented squeals growing. This was starting to feel like a rerun.

Except this won't have a happy ending with someone from the sky...

Now they were up his ass like the night before, their four legged like movement proving to be more effective than his upright running. It would only be a matter of time before their feasting commences and he was now out of options as they were getting closer and closer.

A blinding beam of white exploded with overflowing energy, the chase over their lost meal was now at a standstill. He froze, hands trying to cover his sensitive eyes. It would have burned even without the deprivation he's suffered down here. There was a strange tingling all over his body, the hairs stood forth like tiny emitters.

Then... lift... lift? What? His feet fought to stay on the ground, but it was too late. He was thrown back. A few of those wretches that had kept pace went with him.

Landing with a thud, his mind worked quickly at the thought of what it was. Maybe this was a chance to escape from this place. Like a portal opening a gateway. Scrambling, his fingers began clawing into the stone floor in hopes of pulling forward, the brightness of it began fading so he really began to double his efforts. Then there was a final crackle and what stood now left him aghast.

A man in a straw hat, head tilted down, staff at the ready. Even those monstrous women held themselves with bated breath at the sight of him. Bringing his face into view exposed the pulsing white glow held in his eyes. There was a phrase, "don't attack until you see the whites of their eyes." With him, a battle would have to start prematurely.

A growling roar was quickly silenced, as one of his many rapists leaped from the crowd that had gathered in opposition to this man. He laid down an open palmed hand like it was the hammer of Thor himself, delivering a booming bolt of lightning into the attacker, causing an eruption of limbs and parts to land in a disgusting splash on top of her sisterhood.

Apparently, he wasn't good enough to risk their lives going up against this force of nature. To see them scamper like they did was a truly gratifying moment.

Then the elephant of the room killed that good mood of his. He dare not call him a savior just yet. He learned that lesson the hard way. He wore white, a befitting karate gi with sandals that creased between his big toe and the others. Accentuating that was a blue cloth formed into a vest, with the rest of it hanging between his legs. His gauntlets and shoulder pads stood out most, as they were trim with gold. Clearly he was a man of war. What he fought for was yet determined.

"I am Lord Raiden. Defender of Earthrealm."

Finally. Some good news.

"I am... in extreme pain." This 'lord' was not at all phased by the joke. He could still write it off as the absolute truth however. He had to have answers though. "Why am I here? I was home one minute, then in the sky of this world the next."

"I had contacted the council of the Elders Gods and requested a champion." Raiden's index finger was lazily cast in his direction. "You are the result of their choice."

He couldn't believe it. Why him? He was a nobody. "I... I can't. I am not cut out for this. I can't even fight... those things..." He gestured behind himself with his thumb. "And I couldn't even save Kitana..." Before he could sink down further in himself, a lightbulb moment. "You. You have got to save Kitana! She's-"

"That is something I cannot do."

"What? But. You've got-" Out of frustration, his hands attempted to pantomime Raiden's powers.

"Unless I am challenged in Mortal Kombat, I am not to interfere in such matters." Great, on his own again. He couldn't believe it. The only chance he had to save her and it was slipping in his grasp. The white hot pain in his tightening fists went numb as he felt the boiling rage inside.

On his chest, his fingers clutched at a pendant. How did he not see that thing before? "I can feel it in you. Yes... a power, if properly grown and shaped... could save the realms."

"What about Kitana!?"

Raiden was nonplussed by that response. Raiden's fist balled, the same one that made paste of that monstrosity, snapped open, causing him to flinch away, expecting the pain of a thousand suns to be unleashed upon him. Yet nothing happened. "She too, can be saved. If. You trust me."

What did he have to lose?

He was unsteady as he took hold of the hand offered, then everything became hazy, the surrounding world falling away into an aura of cobalt, his attempted outcry was anything but, as it became nothing but an empty gesture. A feeling of nothingness overwhelmed.

Only wisps of smoke emanating from smoldering stone tiles where they once stood, remained.


	4. Swept Inside

The peaceful foliage now began to flicker and flutter as gusts began to kick up and pillars of wind began to form. It began to spin rapidly, producing a typhoon. Dull blue energy began to build as the speeds produced a run off of an unknown substance. It eventually piled upon itself in an amorphous shape, that a crackle of lightning then broke apart, revealing a figure of a man inside. As the surrounding nature was returned back to normal, from a cobalt void, he emerged, eyes closed, his body stuck in a trance like state.  
  
His mind had only now just began to pick up the pieces. As if time stopped for his consciousness to return. His spirit however, conflicted with his mind. It knew that everything now was different. His final test was complete, to destabilize his existence and reappear somewhere familiar. Somewhere he could picture in his mind.  
  
That forest from that night, was what came to him.  
  
Up above, beams of light glistened amongst the sky as the sun beat down, trickling between the leaves producing lush evergreen.  
  
He wanted to feel that warmth.  
  
Bouncing between them, from tree to tree, his feet leaving imprints in the thick bark. The timber that harmed now were beneath him, serving nothing more than stepping stones. It was surprising how exhilarating it felt to be doing this. He stood on the tips of two opposing trees, arms crossed, his mind at ease, almost surprised that even he, after what felt like a millennia in discipline, could still feel that sense of rush that came from testing ones own skills.  
  
Both his faint excitement and calm demeanor ended on a dour note once he saw the skyline. On the red dusted horizon, high rising smoke and fiery bombs exploded into blackening clouds. Then he saw it. The kingdom and the castle that looked down upon its warring kingdom. This must have been what he had been trained for. Raidens stories of those that stole their rule came rushing back. Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung. A tyrannical warlord and powerful sorcerer, combining their efforts together to become even more of a force for true evil.  
  
Vaulting atop them, he would travel the way Kitana came, figuring it would serve better for time and distance.  
  
She would know best.  
  
With another jump, he came to a sudden stop; there was a bend in his path. A man made bit of land sat in between an enclosure of trees. He was about to readjust and get across another way, as he doubted his ability of clearing the distance of the gap, when he saw something.  
  
No...  
  
'Please have mercy! I beg you!' Painful memories loosened adrift. Not since his training has he ever felt so unsure of himself. All the same however, like Kitana, he would not let this go unpunished.  
  
The man in the Shokans strong grasp struggled and fought for release. "Please! I have a family!"  
  
"Then you will go back less of a man then." Sheeva replied sternly.  
  
Coming down, he smashed and deformed the ground beneath as he landed.  
  
She turned, the man still present. She seemed unimpressed by the display. "Who are you peasant? You seem oddly familiar."  
  
That utterance of who he was seemed to take her back with a small chuckle that ballooned into a belly laugh, that she held back with her extra hands. She recognized that voice now. "Oh yes. You are that boy I met on that night. Scared beyond his wits of simple Tarkatans. Did an old witch steal your life force in promise of power? Your aging has not made you wise, as you are still foolish enough to challenge one such as I." Her knee rose and delivered down her foot in a stamp that quaked the earth beneath him, he could feel the vibrations, but he stood firm to it, his disposition refusing to change, he now approached Sheeva in a semi circle movement. "KNEEL BEFORE ME ROCKTHÁR!" He could sense the fear in her as she moved along opposite him. "In the ancient language of Shokan, rockthár means 'beneath the stone'. It means you are beneath my foot and where it steps. Once you are taken by another, you become the lowest caste of my people." As she made her little speech, he dipped to the ground, recovering a smooth pebble.  
  
"What if that same worm were to get retaliation?" Tossing it into the air, he grasped it mid flip, and then pitched it at her. It narrowly missed, grazing her instead, taking off a bit of her ear lobe, and believe me - she didn't have much ear to take. Sheeva attempted to haphazardly dodge it, dropping the scared naked man who began his best attempt to run despite the lack of footwear on rocky terrain.  
  
That was his plan. He didn't mean to hit her, cause if he did, she'd be on the ground right now. Sheeva had no part in this play, except to keep her cool and stand there as scenery. It would have buzzed by her ear like a fly if she had any sense of inner control. She was still that over angered and under thinking monstrosity she always was.  
  
"Kitana had you pegged for what you really are. Pathetic."  
  
She was now enraged as predicted, and now he was the one smiling. He had once in his foolish youth compared her to the perfection of an angel of dominating grace. A war goddess. It was clear now she was nothing more than a simple barbarian who wielded nothing more than her birth given strength and height. If any of those creatures she had faced on that fateful night possessed any sort of combat initiative, she wouldn't be alive right now.  
  
Then again, neither would he.  
  
Her attacks were standard like her strategy. Trying to lull him into thinking she had only two hands to strike with rather than the actual four she had. Yet for him, it seemed like child's play to avoid all of them, as he dodged and stopped each attempt by her. She seemed to grow agitated, her brow wrinkling even further, the impatient tone in her breath became more and more obvious with each successful dodge on his part. Raiden had put him through this exact same exercise. To never lose faith in ones abilities even in the face of a more advanced master of the arts. This was explained after he had stopped making his same mistakes during Raiden's challenge. To be sure, he was never pompous enough to consider himself a master yet, but to be on the other side of it was lethargic to say the least.  
  
She had had enough of his show boating, as her arms flared up like a spider ready to wrap around her prey. He stood waiting. Her movement like a freight train out of control, moving with intense speed towards him.  
  
Sheeva grabbed for him, only to catch the wind of where his body once was. He had gracefully fallen to his back, and used both hands to propel himself back up, using his feet to deliver a blow into her jaw. She turned in a stupor, before collapsing to the ground, her knees propping up her back end, the one he had so admired on that night, now an easy target. He waited for her to get back up. To try and fight back once again. His body was tightening, ready for another go around, absolutely chomping at the bit for more retribution.  
  
Yet again, she refused to get up.  
  
"Come on." He growled within himself, teeth grinding together. He gave her all the time in the world. Justice needed to be served. As he thought more, one side considered just walking away. That this would have been enough... another side snapped aloud. Angry, and bitter for even thinking that. Did she have justification for what she had done to him? For that man who was shamed and about to be defiled? Did she consider what that thing was capable of to a human? As he stood, readying himself for more of her humiliation, he thought her race... the Shokan... the way they deal with a fallen opponent or someone they save, becoming indentured to a master. If this truly was part of her warrior culture, then she deserved no quarter. After all. She would never do likewise.  
  
She was slumped forward, her shoulders pulling on her tight red v of an outfit, causing it to hitch up into the interior Sheeva's buttocks, making her globes look deceptively appealing in faux nudity. He had to satisfy his curiosity... he stepped closer, pressing his palms into them, he could feel her skin was as hard as he expected. As if she had been formed from granite. He figured that would be typical from a species descended from dragons. Yet, it retained an almost squishy feeling to it. Yes. Touching her further was an opportunity he could not pass up indeed.  
  
Disassembling his robe, he realised how easy it was in bringing her down when he didn't even need to take off his garb.  
  
Taking hold of her cheeks, he squeezed them roughly to the threshold point where it started to pinch back in kind. Finally pulling upon the red spandex string that hid her nude form from him for so long, he pulled it to it's straining point. He could only imagine the pain as the rest of the material dug into her body. As he had hoped, that seemed to finally awaken her. "What are you doing you little whelp!?" Her voice was raised with alarm, trying to fight and raise up, but he had one response for that.  
  
He let it fall back into place, before leaning over her body, then cracking the back of her head with a strike, the bone in his knuckle reverberated through his system, his now shaking hand took hold of the clumpy knotted hair, grinding her face against the terra. "KNEEL. BEFORE. ME." He wasn't sure if he had gone too far with that blow though. Her sign of life snuffed for a moment, before he finally saw her struggling to raise again, but she went no further than spitting the dirt from her mouth. It was the all clear for him to proceed as he saw those glowing eyes squint malice, but no more than that. He pulled on her leotard with little regard for the beast, before it finally came in two, causing her to wail out. Even as she regained her composure, she could only look back at him with that same look of disdain, and that's all she could do as he pressed his tip to her brown and rough back entry. He thrust, and she shrieked out in a deep, low growl. He was half her size in all senses, and there was a guarantee he was nowhere near as endowed as the rest of her people, yet she reacted like she was stabbed with hot death. The back passage truly was her weakness.  
  
But he on the other hand, was under the belief that he had control over every aspect of his senses. All but this singular facet. He found himself falling atop her massive ass. He could easily imagine disappearing between her crevice if he let himself, as his knees nearly buckled. He felt like he was chasing a heat source that he couldn't reach. It was all encompassing, almost burning, and it was driving him to the brink already. Looking for something to soothe the inescapable feeling, his hands pressed and searched her lower back, those leopard spots softer than the rest of her. He could feel her muscles tense and every little goose bump raising beneath her skin.  
  
Despite the pleasure, there was regret. This was the first time he hadn't been on the receiving end from one of the women that existed in this realm. He wished now more than anything that it was with the princess of Edenia. There was solace however, knowing this was the first time Sheeva had ever been compromised.  
  
It was only fair neither of them got what they wanted.  
  
His climax was coming. Building. Unlike before, where it was forced out by Kitana in a such a fashion that shot a chill through him even remembering it. Imagining her heaving body against his was exactly what he needed to propel him to his final blows. Sheeva was caught off guard, knocked off her normally strong hands, the right side of her face was being scrubbed into the dirt. Driving her fingers down, she braced herself. He himself clutched against her, his breath silent, not wanting Sheeva to believe that she could cause him any sort of pleasure. Yet there was an unspoken acquiesce between them, as their rhythm finally matched, making it resemble that of something even faintly mutual.  
  
Soon, he unloaded deep within the female Shokan's cavern. She grunted out in frustrated pain, her surprisingly human like teeth baring to him as she bit down, literally trying to hold her ground as every inch of him entered her.  
  
Now spent, there was clarity.  
  
Of everything.  
  
He recollected himself. Strangely, his robe was giving him trouble. It felt... insecure. He walked away from the chasm of sweating flesh he left in the wake of his climax. Looking back, he could see her portal now seeping his essence, as she now was working to get his planted seed out of her. He didn't know what to expect from her after his punishing lust. For her to run away like that villager? Or for her to rise up and curse him before leaping away? Maybe even to attempt to strike him again? He just expected something more from her. Not just this hushed subjugation.  
  
Of the two of them in that moment of who he loathed the most... it was a dead heat.  
  
================================  
  
'There is no mercy in Mortal Kombat.'  
  
He kept replaying what he had done in his mind while staring at his medallion. Was forcing her into a dishonorable life better than allowing her an honorable death? Sheeva was a sexual sadist. She lived by that code, and she needed to be reminded that she could suffer by it as well. She needed to live in fear for once. One part told him, that with this act, he knew she would never, ever, hurt anyone as she did him...  
  
'If good intentions paved the road to the Netherrealm, then mercy is the chariot that crosses it.'  
  
No matter the platitude he could muster from Raiden's teachings - one thing was for certain  
  
Revenge was truly blinding.  
  
The desert was no man's land... Tarkatan territory, and he strode through it without care, looking up to his prize. He didn't fear them like he had before, but with a Shokan at his side, he was doubly cocky. Like a captured slave, her head hung.  
  
A lone breast sat exposed to the elements -- the side of her outfit ripped and tied between his fist. He could sense her humility akin to that of an animal, and much like a boy and his dog, Sheeva needed a break to raise her leg.  
  
He watched her arms and body stretch in a way that yet again reminded him of an arachnid, as she took a hold of her heaving and sweating sack with a single hand, positioning herself. He stared for a moment, watching as she spewed forth her strange looking piss, noting that her length still looked as dangerous as ever. A blink of both pain and vivid imagery as he felt what would have happened if he had lost to her.  
  
When the last of the pitter patter stopped, he yanked the makeshift chain, before starting the trek anew, knowing she would take him where he needed to be. Yet something proved bothersome in the back of his mind - one he would resolve.  
  
With a wrench of her neck, he brought her down, elbow across her throat and chin.  
  
"DID YOU HURT HER."  
  
A stiffened 'no' was her response.  
  
That would suffice.  
  
================================  
  
Under a curved and hanging cliff side like that of a crescent moon, his body sat as steady as his overhead protection. His captured Shokan at one knee, but looked as ready as ever to pounce on anyone to come their way. Every once and awhile he would catch a glimpse of her strong golden stomach, as the orange flames nearly licked them with every rise and crack of wood. He had seen her fight of course, and if anyone was thinking of infiltrating the camp, there'd be hell to pay indeed.  
  
"Why does the Edenian Princess love you, human?" Sheeva asked with a stoic face, but the L word was like something ackrid in her mouth, her vision locked onto the fire. "She's of a noble lineage with beauty, grace and strength -- how can she have compassion for a lowly mortal like yourself? When she had found you, you were nothing but my crumpled mess. She should have sought a more suitable mate. No Shokan broodmare would take on a failure as a lover."  
  
He smiled. "You know the more and more I hear about your culture, the more I despise it. No wonder you're the only one I've seen." He shifted a hand over his chest. "No, the real question here Shokan, is your kinds ignorance of love." He waved his hand off at her, as he pulled up a stick that he had been using to coax the fire. "All your kind knows is how to take-" He stabbed the fire  
  
"take"  
  
He stabbed again  
  
"TAKE!"  
  
He plunged the stick into it as if it were a fallen foe, ashes splitting. He pointed accusingly. "Until you understand how to respect a rockthár, your freedom is forfeit."  
  
Sheeva roared over the fire. "You cannot keep me like this forever! You will be defeated in combat, and I will be wrested control over to them!" Sheeva relaxed. Her outburst clear as she returned to that look of contemplation. "We fight to weed out weakness. To secure my kinds future. It's in my blood. I thought it would be in Kitana's..."  
  
"You don't know a thing about her." He still shook his head as if he were disappointed by her ignorance, even knowing full well how her kind would think. "I'm tired of this. Talking to you would be like engaging a brick wall in a conservation. Maybe you possess the brain of one as well." He turned from the fire, trying to find a soft space to retire with the sand beneath him crunching like gravel. "Good night."  
  
...  
  
shnnk  
  
shnnk  
  
SHNNK  
  
He couldn't believe he had just fallen asleep like that. His tired eyes flexing, unable to see as he forced himself upwards. Shadows loomed everywhere, the fire having died awhile ago.  
  
SHNNK  
  
His ears perked, what the hell was that? It was like a blade against wet stone. When the noise struck again, he followed towards the source, almost unwillingly so because of the darkness and what could be waiting around the bend.  
  
He watched, mouth covered, her tall and slender figured outline clear, her monstrous pole stood at attention in profile. He gulped. It was as if the legend had grown in his mind...  
  
As the night time adjusted in his sights, it all became clear, as she swiped once more:  
  
She had been grinding down something, something like a stone knife. Yet she didn't seem the type to carry a weapon. Sheeva only had need for one tool...  
  
"Sheeva?" He called out, mouth dry and honestly surprising himself that he had done so. Her form froze up, surprise and shock on her face, almost as if he caught her stroking her...  
  
The stone fell, indenting the sand.  
  
"Human... I was not expecting you to be awake..." Was that a hint of nervousness on her breath? It quickly slipped away as she stood to form like a statue, her body as unwavering as her cock. "You were not meant to see this..."  
  
See what? As he approached, he got a good look.  
  
The spikes that had been there to punish those that would be foolish enough to come across her, were long gone. It was like the gargantuan beast between her legs that had been defanged, and just like an animal that had been domesticated, he wanted to engage it... stroke it... discover every contour, every wrinkle of the leathery skin that surrounded her shaft. His gaze like a lit up line leading to TNT, finding its way up her imposing build -- realising then the true bridge between them was longer than he had realised. He should be the one in shock, not her. "Why not?"  
  
Sheeva had nowhere to turn but her master.  
  
"For a deed to be selfless, no one must know it was ever committed... as I waited over you, I realised you were... right." It obviously hurt her to say that, but there was not that hint of regret to it that he expected if she had lied. "I devised a gift for you."  
  
But he wasn't going to let her know that he knew, that she was being honest with him.  
  
"I have my doubts, Shokan." He disregarded her with ease.  
  
"You doubt me!?" That steamy pride stamped forth from her like an elephant.  
  
"I have my doubts." He restated, eyes in repose.  
  
As if on cue, he heard her lips suckle, before delivering a hard hock. As if expecting to be splattered, he instead saw the head of her cock even more slickened. Her hands alternated between spitting and stroking. It was mesmerizing to say the least, keeping his mind off the fact that this was going to go inside him soon.  
  
She sat, perching her lower half - her stunning body of muscle and sex, inviting. A hand of hers pushing up her head into view, elbow outstretched, hairless armpit exposed, her eyes half lidded. He couldn't believe he could describe Sheeva as being casual, but here she was.  
  
Did he forget to mention the giant cock? Intimidating to say the least, it didn't seem to have a give to it. He felt the smoothed edges, still trying to find the lethal protrusions, as he was still wary of her and what she could do if so inclined. Maybe one of them was a switch and they'd burst out to skewer him.  
  
Maybe.  
  
He stood tall, but even that didn't seem like enough as he tried to lower himself down onto the engorged toadstool. He rubbed it against his cavity for a moment, trying to connect it with himself, but it was exhilarating and terrifying all at once, leaving himself unable to do the deed properly. He'd leave it to the professional.  
  
Sheeva's monstrous digits gripped betwixt his fingers, positioning them and him as best she could. He stared a moment into her eyes. There was something in her that was unlike every other encounter before -- she wasn't trying to be menacing, which was still hard for her considering the horns, skin and body. She was just trying to enjoy the moment. "Wait." He breathed, sucking in the cool air to relax his burning and confused insides. His loins lusted for Sheeva, but his mind and spirit were absorbed somewhere else.  
  
To someone else.  
  
"Okay." He relented, as Sheeva punched into him. There was no pretending now - it hurt. He couldn't exactly forget his first - there was pain, but not like that first time. The head grazed like little rivets on his insides, like an extreme colonic that he'd never forget as she crawled up into his interiors. It wasn't so much sex, as just a slow descent.  
  
A descent he was in control of.  
  
He gripped her hands tight.  
  
It took her a second to register that as the all clear, as she lifted him. He could feel every inch, almost counting the measurements of the flesh he rode up again. What was strange on this go round was how much precum she exuded. It had to be as much as a normal cumshot. He worried about the real thing.  
  
He could see she craved more, because every once and awhile she would go a little faster than he wanted, but she was tempered enough to hold back. He knew he could never truly tame the beastess, as he slid up and down, waiting for the worst.  
  
Then it happened.  
  
Sheeva had hit her overdrive moment, and became a relentless monster as she thrust upwards, trying to reach the heavens through him, and with his hands held down to his side, she took a strong grip of his cock while using the other to press into the flat of his stomach. He knew if she continued the way she had been, his mind would blank out - even with his strong constitution.  
  
There was nothing he could do.  
  
He convulsed and fired across her full and sweaty chest. Almost annoyed at this, her movements hiccuped for a moment to stare, but continued pumping soon after as his neck went slack.  
  
It felt like she hit the top of him.  
  
She glowered for a moment, her big lips pulled back as she gave him everything she had - firing what felt like gallons of cum into him that Sheeva refused to let out of him with her big, fleshy stopgap.  
  
He didn't know how long he was out for.  
  
They sat in the afterglow.  
  
There was something he was waiting for. The look of contempt, a need for retribution.  
  
Yet it never came.  
  
He felt Sheeva's strong hands prop him up as he walked with a limp back to the camp. "You're free now, or whatever I have to say in your language to give it back. Freedom-for-you-sesame..." What was he even saying?  
  
Placing him with a gentleness he still wasn't sure how she was capable of, his eyes fell on the wavy striped patterns that made up the hide that now rested upon him as Sheeva took her place beside him. "Where did you get this?"  
  
Sheeva's eyes remained shut as her booming murmur of a response came "I intended this to be the gift."


	5. An Apology

Sheeva was a mistake.  
  
After she had departed, he had spent most of the day thinking about last night, and where he went wrong. Kitana meant the world... he considered their love as sacrosanct... yet there was a part of him that didn't deny his baser desires. A search for intimacy that he had thought he had beaten out of himself a long time ago, in both his training and all those balmy nights, thinking of her touch and those lost embraces that he never got to reconcile.  
  
His stomach felt pitted - sinking him into a grave of his own devices, his journey now a way to claw himself out, only to be thrown down again as he reached the crest -- but it's not by the hand of Sheeva, Sindel or Kahn that puts him there... it's Kitanas.  
  
Could he even admit to what he did?  
  
To her? To someone so perfect?  
  
Maybe he wouldn't be the piece of shit he thought he was if he could muster up the courage to tell her the truth. With no spin, no lies.  
  
That would come to a head though.  
  
_Heavy words do burden hearts, I'd cave._  
  
His inner warring thoughts had gotten him off track - as he found himself deep within a darkened forest. It was different from where he had started -- the trees there were packed tightly together, uniform to one another. Like terracotta soldiers. Here, they all seemed to sprout into a chaotic fashion, forming into huge knotted wood, gnashing everywhere they could, as if they were lashing out at one another.  
  
Something had gone wrong though. The ground, the trees and even the leaves were a stark grey. Like life had abandoned this place a long time ago. Maybe the bedfellows had grown too strange. The way one looked to his immediate vicinity, bothered him in particular. It was withered to the point of being kindling. He snapped a piece off with as much as effort as it took to blink and it quickly became powdered ashen in his fingers. Something about it was hard to describe. It had two sunken indents that were at least a foot apart, below that were two smaller vertical slits. At the base was a gaping hole that had bark jutting forward in jagged edges. It looked like you could fall into it. Separately they meant nothing, but together, it was like... a face... screaming out in anguish.  
  
"Make a wrong move and I'll put a bullet in you." A bullet? Were they capable of this kind of technology? All signs pointed to no. He turned without fear. She jutted the gun at him. "Back off." He did a once over of Sonya. She looked to be of the same birth place... the dog tags and badge being the give away.  
  
"I am from Earthrealm-" He mentally chided himself. "Earth."  
  
"And you dress like that? Somehow I don't believe you." Despite very well being a potential danger to her life, she talked to him with a blitheness he found inviting - even with a gun pointed in his face.  
  
The important thing is that she hadn't shot him. Maybe there was a reason. He decided to lay out his cards to her. "I was sent by Raiden."  
  
Her face went from a fierceness to a steely eyed look of confusion, a bit hopeful. Her gun still trained on him however. "Thee Raiden?" Her voice less threatening and more confused than anything.  
  
What other could there be? "He has been my sensei for awhile now."  
  
"That's great and everything, but he's never mentioned you before..." The tone was back to accusatory. He guessed Raiden hadn't gotten around to telling his original Earthrealm warriors. He still remembered how Raiden talked about Liu Kang and his followers, always proud of them, but mostly Liu in particular - Raiden placed him above all others.  
  
"I was trained in secret, as I have been entrusted with unshackling Edenia's rule of him." She raised an eyebrow at this. "I'm glad to have met another living soul as I-"  
  
She cut his diatribe short. "By 'him', you mean Shao Kahn, right?"  
  
His nod was curt. "Of course."  
  
She steadied once more, before pulling her gun back and holstering it and extending a hand. "Sonya Blade." He did likewise.  
  
He didn't speak much of his past history. It all seemed too irrelevant to the here and now. Maybe it just wasn't worth talking about. Or maybe he was growing rather fond of the idea of staying here in Edenia with Kitana and getting to know this unique culture. The side of his lip began to curl, and he had to look away from Sonya. Would it really be that bad an idea? Being here for the rest of his life with the woman he loved?  
  
Sonya explained that she had been with her partner - a man by the name Jax - on the trail of someone they weren't even sure existed, when some of Kahn's forces separated the two. She had been searching for him ever since.  
  
No offense to Sheeva, but having a normal traveling companion and just someone to talk to sapped away any fear inspiring power this place had, but it also didn't hurt that she was rather attractive in ways Sheeva wasn't.  
  
He rejected those thoughts. His transgression couldn't happen again. He had one goal. One love...  
  
He hoped to change the subject, maybe ask her something embarrassing to further curb the thoughts, but the calming walk came to a sudden halt when she had come to a dead stop. He wondered for a second what was wrong as Sonya ran over and away from him. "Oh no. Please god no." He could see why now. The man she had been looking for was dead. Sonya fell near her fallen compatriot.  
  
The blood had drooled out of Jax's hanging mouth, forming a pool beside him. He could see her reflection in it. It was oddly reflective, as he watched the tears on her face flow from behind her back.  
  
He didn't say a word about them. What was his place exactly to say something? Yet he wondered if she needed it, the comfort of a warm hand on a shoulder and a reassuring voice. He could sense it though. She had that killer instinct inside her, but she wasn't indifferent to death, so the feeling of anguish that came from this, losing somebody she cared for... it must have been immense.  
  
The thoughts of loved ones always came clearest in times like this, as they had a moment of silence, giving respect to the fallen man. He'd never known him, but he would not pretend he wasn't a loss in this conflict.  
  
He wondered if Kitana had mourned him the same way Sonya did.  
  
Just then, a hand had rippled out and before he could say a word, Sonya was pulled in. He fell into the same position Sonya had just been, patting the wet grass. The entry point missing. Instead now was a two way mirror of blood that shimmered as he saw Sonya struggling to reach for him, sinking further and further down.  
  
Without fear, he punched into what seemed like hard ground, with a thunderous splash in response. Reaching further and further down, fingers desperate to clasp at anything, from her hand to her hair to her outfit. Anything would do.  
  
Painfully, it didn't come down to that  
  
The head of the woman hit his chin as she flew up like a mortar round. She hit hard, and the next few moments were a blur outside of the feeling of his teeth rattling. There were two unpleasant sounding deposits as he and Sonya landed with loud thumps.  
  
His head limply fell to its side and he could now see Sonya splayed out in the rotted grass. He had taken a tumble and she was just a few feet across the pathway from him. She seemed like she had been knocked out cold, covered from head to toe in blood, her once beautiful blonde hair now matted in red, changing in colour to a disgusting degree, but her body stirred, murmuring, her face wiping against the ground before coughing up what she had swallowed, followed up by gasps for air. He looked back again to where she had popped out of, and what emerged... he couldn't believe his eyes. Strings of red crimson formed webs that interlocked, which shifted, as more and more seemed to gather. Soon, it seemed to stabilize into a statue of blood, its bust first, revealing an immaculate figure with an iron stomach. More and more of the figure seemed to fit into place as it eventually filled out from a piece of red clay into human flesh, revealing every finer detail of her nudity -- her naked chest was almost as bountiful as Sonya's seemed to be, with dark areolas that were quickly covered by what little clothes she seemed to wear. Her red boots were knee high, with black leg wrapping that went just below the thigh, leading to the four obvious kunai bound to them.  
  
It was a disgusting transformation, but she came out of it like nothing happened. Even he needed time from his teleportation to get his bearings. Guess that came from experience. He could see she already was acting with a commanding presence as she stepped forward. As he got a better look, she met his gaze with her dull shade of blue eyes, which was still rather striking considering it was in a sea of red, but she looked away once she had locked her eyes upon the fallen girl, they may as well have been that of a shark's, cause they saw nothing but blood.  
  
Without question in his mind, he knew she was responsible for what happened to the deceased soldier, then he looked again to Sonya, still laid up, in no condition to fight.  
  
He knew.  
  
A quick kip up brought him to his feet, and without delay, he charged at her. He should have known better. Maybe the hit rocked his head harder than he realised, as now, he couldn't deliver the blow he intended for her. His motor skills must have been hurt worse than he... no. That wasn't it at all.  
  
The feeling of that congealment began yanking his left arm backwards. It crept around, out of his sight, as the slimy substance started yanking towards, then entrapping his right as well. He may have been figuratively disarmed in this half hearted straitjacket , but that wouldn't stop him. His face lowered from her view, not revealing anything, waiting for another moment to strike.  
  
Then like gallons of weighing water attached to him suddenly, he fell down like a ton of bricks. On his knees, he was now eye to eye with something sinister he hadn't mentioned, hoping it wouldn't come to this.  
  
Before, the area between her legs was like that of a dolls. Smooth. Perfect.    
  
Empty.  
  
That was the one thing he didn't mention. A certain sexual characteristic of her was missing as she was creating herself. One commonality amongst all the women he's met so far on this journey. Now, the object he feared began to take shape, like the skeleton of a freighter amassing itself together like spiders working on a masterpiece. He struggled, his body tightening to a point where it felt like he was going to cross a threshold and pop something he shouldn't - but he was willing to as he stared into the dark abyss of her cock's loaded barrel. He felt like he knew every intimate detail of the appendage, every muscle, every vein, and he hadn't even touched her.  
  
Yet...  
  
There was an odd quiet, the red ninja coy with her actions, as she surveyed the area, her actions and body language hard and far too inhuman to understand. He felt almost desperate enough to beg to know what was about to happen - but his answer came as the lithesome predator began to stalk her wounded prey, her right hand resting upon the handle of a short blade that held firmly at her back. He gritted his teeth as he watched helplessly, the sound of the blade exiting its sheath was like a razor in his mind.  
  
"Sonya!"  
  
THWIP  
  
Before he could even react, the scarlet clad bloodwalker nearly circumcised him with one of those kunai, and she didn't even flinch to deliver the throw. Like it didn't even happen. She continued unabated, now holding the blade to the fallen girl, tracing along the sides of her skin-tight battle pants. Sonya moaned, attempting to stand, but she was clearly still too punch drunk. A single grinding of her heel against Sonya's behind was all it took to knock her down again.  
  
Kneeling down, she seemed to have been sizing up her target, the hand with the blade tracing along Sonya's form, wafting across her like a scorpion's tail ready to strike. He cringed every time steel touched tip with her skin for even the slightest second, even if it didn't draw blood. Sonya for her credit didn't cower, but she knew the game being played just as well as he did. She remained still, trying to make herself seem like unexciting quarry, but even just a glance between the blade wielding woman's legs was enough to dispel that theory.  
  
With a pull of her ponytail, Sonya let out a low and muted moan, her face awash with pain, eyes partially closed and mouth agape. He wanted to shout out to Sonya again as he saw that knife being dangled in front of her face, but wasn't sure if that first throw was the warning shot and the next one would go into his throat.  
  
Starting from below the waist, he grimaced as he watched the red ninja place the tipped point against Sonya's nether region. She didn't stay long however as she began gliding up her well toned stomach with that knife. He imagined the way that steel felt against the tautness of Sonya's skin, her navel could feel like and look like a washboard, but it couldn't deflect the blade's pierce. He could sense that hidden smile of the blood demon as she kept him in white knuckled suspense. Sonya looked to him, he looked to Sonya, unsure of what was about to happen - or even what to do.  
  
Lifting the center of her top with the sharpest edge, she swung upwards, the material cutting easily, causing Sonya's ample breasts to violently fly out in a flutter. Sonya turned her head away in disgust, unable to look at him any longer. He stared. They were beautiful, as he had imagined them to look; large and pink. She had to have been the most well endowed of all the women of this realm, but before he could stare further, her future assassin just tossed her over like butchered cattle, and with an angry ferocity, pulled back her leather pants. The red devil seemed particularly in joy with what she saw, and even from where he sat, he could see the way Sonya's ass curved invitingly.  
  
Sonya's red rapist took notice, as she placed her cock atop where her ass parted, resting it like she reigned supreme over Sonya. Sonya's mild wiggles to get away did little to dissuade her, as it looked like the red ninja could pop with her pristine cock at any moment due to Sonya's ministrations -- but that's when her hands sank deep into her cheeks, locking her hips into place and she began teasing her entrance, playing along Sonya's crevice as she feigned the ability to find what she was looking for. Before she delivered her non lethal stab, Sonya reached out a shaking hand to him. This time, he looked away.  
  
Yet not for long. His head whipped back as he heard her scream. With the red demon sinking her hips into the backside of the blonde, Sonya's water blue eyes were shot open with tears, a piercing look that ignored him completely and chomped down teeth. His hands slacked, resting into the murky feeling water to his back. She had given up, and in some ways so did he. He could only watch her slope, as Sonya's hanging breasts were forced down and her heavy tits began grinding into the brown and dead pasture with every thrust, her perfect body now as dirty as he imagined she felt. It didn't take long for the rapists sexual demands to grow, as her lower body began moving violently, her lust unquenchable  
  
Then he wondered what she would do to him.  
  
The red ninja seemed unable to express her emotions vocally, instead choosing wild and frantic twists of the neck. Yet there was a sound that defined their relationship: With every slap of skin to skin contact between them, it was a reminder to Sonya she was just a piece of meat. There was a strange, yet consistent rhythm. Almost as if a message was being communicated as if she had done this before. She was trained well, her athletically defined body the result. Without even thinking twice, she grabbed the heavy thigh of Sonya's bare leg, before lifting it from where it had sunken into the dirt.  
  
Sonya's thick and frustrated cock bounced, wincing cream with every pump from behind.  
  
It went on like this. Ceaseless reminders of Sonya's pain and the red ninja's mastery of the situation, and now, pangs of pain that rang throughout his fists.  
  
Holding her hips didn't seem like it was enough for her, and soon she had her hawk like grip sunken into the blonde American girls shoulders. Sonya's spine curved in the middle in a way that didn't even seem possible, but that seemed to be the least of her worries, as her violator seemed to be spasming in her last throes. He saw the underside of Sonya's neck tighten, a bead of sweat flying. He could read her face - the way her teeth chomped down before letting out a frustrated hiss, her chin jutting forward suddenly with each and every unwanted deposit that was made.  
  
He knew that feeling well.  
  
Like nothing had even happened, she stepped away from Sonya hurriedly, almost drunkenly, her steps misaligned unlike the calculating fiend he had seen before, clearly, the pleasure had gone to her head. She began her stride, her messy cock swaying heavily between her legs and he knew exactly what she wanted from him, as his eyes faced forward to her glinting eye on her lower half, the bones of her hips forming a V shape that pointed to only one thing. His body stiffened, head tilted up as far it would go. Her hands raised in kind, ready to pull him back down to crotch level.  
  
Like a fish in a stream however, he snatched her hand with ease before bringing her down, her face nearly hitting the water. She turned, her eyes widening, incapable of understanding how this could happen. This was probably the least control she ever had in her life. His hand finally revealing the throwing dagger. It only stayed clutched over her back for a second as he drove it into her spine, before tossing her in.  
  
She wasn't dead, no--but the good stuff was about to begin. He watched with a sneer as she emerged out in a voiceless scream, her cheeks hollowed out as more and more of her dropped off in wet bloody gooplets, her motions like that of someone who couldn't swim, - but he knew that wasn't the case - he watched as she paddled desperately. As she went to splash down once again into the reddening pool, her hand and the water became one in the same as she was now disappearing into the depths. It began to take the rest of her. Her mask fading, now exposing her face for the first time. When the lower part of her jaw began melting, exposing the interiors of her insides, he had to look away, questioning why he even took satisfaction.  
  
From one grim sight to another, Sonya's wilted form was like that of a trampled flower; barely able to hold herself together. He offered her his hand. Hers was shaking like a leaf, but eventually she placed it into his. The softness and frailty of those fingers almost had him lock up for a brief second as he helped raise her.  
  
Sonya had only decided to do something about hiding those breasts of hers when she was standing at full attention, tying a knot with what was left of her outfit, that securement was understandable considering what just happened. His focus falling back to his fallen foe. Sonya approached, his voice soft. "I'm sorry I couldn't have helped you sooner... if I had only known that this forest was alive and hungry..." He motioned for her to look at the bloodied pool that was now cleaning what was left of the red ninja, then to his weathered fists. "We should part ways..."  
  
Sonya grimaced as she held up a hand, revealing herself trying to get him to stop. "Wait! Don't be sorry - you did what you could..." She said weakly. Sonya looked absolutely ruffled, the make up around her eyes smeared and her hair all over the place, but more than that, she looked... vulnerable - and not in the way she acted when she saw Jax. She barely resembled the girl he first met, shaken up in a way that felt familiar. It's like he had known her all his life after seeing these two disparate angles of her person. He turned, wanting to move beyond what transpired. "Where are you going?"  
  
"After Kahn."  
  
"You can't do it alone!" She yelled in desperation. "I can't do it alone..." Her voice nearly cracking. "I can't go back empty handed..."  
  
He stopped. Turning, there was a forced and questioning blink as he looked to her for answers.  
  
"There are people still fighting. Those still loyal to the kingdom before Kahn's rule. They need a leader against those that side with Kahn due to the emergence of the old Queen, and without Jax..." Placing her head in her gloved hand, she pulled back with a sigh. "We need more than a warm body. We need somebody that would give them hope -- and you need an army at your back if you want to get past the castle walls."  
  
There was a long pause. The moment crystallizing in the orb of Sonya's blue eyes when his eyeline broke way, as the memory of a verse from webbed tomes opened again  
  
_Heavy words do burden hearts, I'd cave._


	6. Walking Through That Door

The doors to the throne room came crashing down off their seams, the two guards posted did little to heed his entrance, laying bloody in stone and wood.  
  
An older man stepped forward, with an ancient face, but still suspiciously spry in his step, like the guard dog he so much was, he protected the true master. Normally you think of the mastermind as the weak and withered, puppeteering oversized underlings from high above in his tower on the hill.  
  
No. Shao Kahn's form offered no lie. A man whose size represented his power. One whose abilities even sat above the sorcerers. Master Raiden wasn't afraid of him. Just at unease whenever the subject came upon this false ruler of Edenia.  
  
"I have come for your head." He was trained explicitly for both the old man and the dictator.  
  
"Many have." He seemed almost amused. Not giving him any serious thought. "What do you offer, foolish child, to complete such a feat."  
  
"I offer you... reprieve." Raiden would have his tongue if he had heard him say that. "And safe passage from here." His head for that.  
  
He laughed. He laughed hard -- nearly restraining his sides. Even the warlock was enjoying the show from this impudent young newcomer. "For what may I ask is this delightful offer in exchange for?"  
  
"Kitana. Where is she?" Both Kahn and Shang Tsung would be a secondary motive. Despite everything Raiden had done, the speeches, the lectures, the shout downs. Only one thing came to mind. Only one person. She was the reason he was alive right now. She was the reason he crawled out of the muck. She would not be forgotten in this chaos.  
  
Yet... Raiden was the reason he was here right now. It's why he's now capable of so much. Why he even could rescue his love in the first place.  
  
He owed them both so much.  
  
Deep down, he knew this was the right thing to do.  
  
"Ah yes... my daughter." The false king breathed in. "Lovely little thing she is. She takes after her mother." He wasn't laughing. Kahn just shrugged. "Humor me, boy. It's not everyday you're bestowed a dowry worth its weight in gold." He hoped for a response, but got smoulder. He finally just waved him off. "Down that spiral staircase, you will find her in the same prison you were once held, boy."  
  
Just as he was about to descend, he looked back to the emperor. "Flee while you can. I will be back for you." He hadn't forgotten his promise and service to his master. One day he would do the deed. Just not today.  
  
"Do as you wish." Shao Kahn talked with a deliberate tone as if he were delivering council. That flippant attitude and ignorance of his power would be his downfall.  
  
He started out slow. The darkness overwhelming. Then the thought of Kitana's wellbeing screamed out to him, as it had done in so many dreams of his. It seemed everyday was dragging longer than the last, but he remembered those moments in his bed that seemed to last forever thinking about her. Having young, boyish fantasies of saving her from a place like this. They offered him something when she was so far away.  
  
Solace.  
  
Solace in the idea that one day, he would traipse these very steps and save his fair princess from the clutches of evil -- then it would just be like before. His heart could feel the rush like he did in his imaginations.  
  
His step slowed for a second. What if... he had changed too much? What if he had become something she could never love? Could she have fallen... out of love? He had never considered the idea even for a moment that this could even be a possibility. He had even studied poetry for the day when he returned, for he would woo her.  
  
_If I touched your rose, would I snag?_  
  
_Would the truth bleed through?_  
  
There was nothing to fear.  
  
_And unlike a puzzles jag_  
  
_Where I search for clues about you_  
  
Falling to his knees, sapped of energy, he could barely find the strength to even lift the lifeless body. Split in twain, she was lost.  
  
_It's never put together again_  
  
_For honesty was like a decoration_  
  
Once, long ago, he had said she was not unlike a glass figurine. It pained him for it to be so true that she would be as fragile as well. Yet here she lay. Broken into many pieces. Still, like a ballerina in a shattered music box, she remained beautiful.  
  
_It could crack like porcelain_  
  
_But maybe you were just my carnation_  
  
He had a dream once. Completely silent. Kitana said nothing. He said nothing. They just stared at one another and caressed, refusing to part...  
  
He fell onto the softness of his ear, hoping to replicate that dream, staring into her once beautiful burning brown orbs that now had lost their luster for life. His fingers felt the dread, the feeling of the cold of her cheek, the blood arrested, as he pressed his shivering thumb against the softs of her eyelids, dragging them down.  
  
Her name left in a whisper. Then it came again, harder, louder this time. He finally shouted it out to the unresponding heavens -- loud enough to quake the dead from their slumber or spiderweb the mirror to the nightmare... yet nothing changed. His stomach wanted to retch as he began to breathe rapidly. His hand ripped away from her, scared of what he might have done. Fire raged within his soul, like a forest besieged in flame.  
  
They would pay.  
  
As if a wraith of pain and torment had overtaken him, he retraced his steps like a wild animal, the shadows he cast now the breeze.  
  
"Hello lov-" It angered him that Shang Tsung even tried his hand at that trickery. There was no chance of getting in his skin through an altered visage. He had just felt the cold that resided in her body. She was gone.  
  
As he lay decapitated, returning to his corporeal form, the reality of his mistake only swelled. He let out a bullish grunt, frustrated at his own power. His thirst for revenge had not been quenched. He picked his body up, spinning, then throwing him like a dart towards the top of the velveted throne, snapping the gold like wood.  
  
Click.  
  
Click.  
  
Click.  
  
Those hard heel clicks.  
  
The greyed witch herself. Sindel. "So. My husband disturbs my rest, telling me the fool that caused my daughters death has come uninvited-"  
  
"Where is Kahn."  
  
She almost seemed a little frightened by his tone, but soon recognizing him. She grew a look of a demonic flirt, as she brushed across her lip. "My my, how you've grown. Are you my age by chance?"  
  
"Do not underestimate who I am now." He responded with growl behind gritted teeth.  
  
"We shall see when I make you suffer like my daughter did!" The hair whipped across towards him first. He wrangled it in his fist. His attention was on it for only a brief second and she was already on him.  
  
A devastating kick almost caught him in his ribs, but he had the reflexes to catch it in a twist, as he was about to use it to his advantage, she brought her hand down, not in a strike or fisted motion, but in a swipe across his chest. He couldn't believe how much that hurt, but it sent two signals to his brain. One of pain and one of reaction. His fist clocked her jaw hard enough for her to falter back, her hair slipping through his grasp.  
  
As she reeled, he growled, leaping atop her, hands wrapping across her neck. "If you were a caring mother, you'd have cast yourself off a cliff!" Maybe the words from his lips caused her lament, as she responded with her own piercing pain as her mouth opened with an almost devastating scream. He only barely escaped, landing awkwardly. As he tried to regain his grace from the head puncturing soundwave he just received, the world seemed to spin, but even as off kilter as he was, he could see Sindel and she didn't even bother to pick up her pace, her laugh silent and inaudible.  
  
As his hearing returned, she attempted it again, but he took flight over her.  
  
But he didn't truly understand the meaning the way she did.  
  
She caught him in a choke hold from behind, which was... impossible. He looked down over her pale skinned arm to his feet, dangling in mid air, but hers stayed stiff, levitating them both above the marble. He struggled, and before the oxygen could leave him forever, she turned him on a dime before striking the tips of her heels into his arms, driving them both down.  
  
That was the pain necessary to awaken him.  
  
Driving both fists up, they cracked.  
  
Not his knuckles, but the hard material itself.  
  
She let him go for a second, to gawk at the damage she had wrought, only to find him back on his feet, the crater they made being the worst of it.  
  
Sindel seemed to find this inconceivable, unleashing a ball of purple fire from her distended maw. He responded, yanking a hand of hers away from them both, before palm striking the bottom of her jaw, sealing her mouth, and causing her to fall backward.  
  
She had an ace though.  
  
Playing possum in her fall, her hands caught the ground, propelling herself in a gymnastic flip forward, bringing down her foot. If he hadn't been able to react as fast as he could, it could have punctured his throat. Instead, he took the brunt of it between his neck and his shoulder, and as he sequestered it with his head, he knew he had her.  
  
His fingers felt thousands of sharp tingles hit his nerves as it balled together, and when he knew it was right, he delivered the blow right at in the middle of her spine, and with that, the room grew silent. He let go, breathing in deeply  
  
Sindel was drained of energy, her fighting spirit ceased, collapsing hard to her knees. "Please. I see the error of my ways. Shao Kahn had control over me. Believe me." She shuffled upon her knees, closer to him. "If we join forces, you and I can rule together and destroy him." She draped her body against his. Her razor like fingers traced along the outside of his groin, before eventually nuzzling her face near it.  
  
"Where is Kahn." For he would not make the same mistake twice.  
  
She looked up with her creamy eyes, unsure of herself for a moment. "The black church... where he had me arisen... on the border of this kingdom..."  
  
"You know Sindel... if Kitana were still here, she would show you mercy." His finger tilted her head up, as if offering her a drink from his cup. As she smiled with those rows of sharpened teeth. He could easily see himself using that toothy grinned expression for his own pleasure. That look however, changed in an instant, as he took hold of her aged dead flesh, and with a spin, she was dead. Yet he wasn't done. A succulent sound of flesh ripping apart popped and then ended as quickly as it started. The strength required for the feat only needed for a brief second. "But I know better." The feeling of victory began fleeting once again, as he stared into the gaping bloodied maw, before harshly spiking it with both hands, in another wet snap.  
  
He collapsed against the steps, legs at the fore front as he rested his elbow against them. He stared into nothing.  
  
This was it. His one shot. And for what? A pyrrhic victory. He had lost her. Lost himself. He was content with Raiden throwing him into the farthest void in the unknown realms. He lightly pressed against his injury, causing him to flinch slightly. Seeing the blood on his fingers, he knew his other option was letting let himself succumb to the banshees scratch.  
  
He would see which came first.  
  
He wished he could pass somewhere beautiful, with Kitana... she could be by his side. Images of her. Images of them, entered his mind. Their bodies lay sprawled, next to an ocean so blue. So peaceful... not like here. Not like now.  
  
Despite his listless abandonment, he could still hear everything. The fighting. The screams of pain. Everything he wanted to disconnect from.  
  
What would Kitana do for her realm if she were here?  
  
He hated the answer.  
  
Hearing another battle cry from out there. He fought to raise himself, stumbling past the broken despot's chair, he saw defiant villagers had raised arms along with that band of soldiers Sonya had recruited. But both Kahn's soldiers and the rebels had taken considerable losses. Some lay as if trampled, others spilled over carts or in the doorways of homes. He rushed back inside, realising there was one way to stop this.  
  
The blood from her neck trailed him like bread crumbs along the royal rug. Making it to the balcony once again, he misstepped on the small insignificant barrier. It barely had space for his footing, with a great fall below. This wouldn't be the first time he ever defied death, and he was sure it wouldn't be the last. He produced it, letting the head drape above them all, the head like a sack, bobbing lifelessly. His fist outstretched, hair in between his fingers, attempting to reach the heavens. As if he had medusa's head, it seemed to yield power all the same, as both sides laid down their arms.  
  
=============================  
  
_My beautiful daughter suffered at the hands of Kahn because of you!_  
  
Heat.  
  
The dream was nothing but warmth that formed all across his form. Now it made sense. He was in a whirlwind of groping hands. The feel of their flesh upon him. Their glassy eyed stares as they took him repeatedly. He tossed and turned before he struggled awake, trying to find the breath in his throat. His face and skin covered in a layer of sweat that still seemed to pour. A strong hand wrapped across his chest, forcing him back to the bed. Then that smell hit him, a strong medicine like smell that filled his nostrils. He could remember it from when he last saw... His face turned to meet the stranger in the night.  
  
Those eyes...  
  
Jade.  
  
He had expected someone else... but Jade's green eyes have never sparkled so brightly. He couldn't believe even when they had kissed he had never taken notice of them. He was in a bad place at the time... so recognizing beauty like that wasn't something he was capable of. Yet he questioned her presence.  
  
"Once I knew my sister had... passed, I knew which side I had to be on. Yet seeing you..." Her nail traced the last bit of the healing balm across his stomach, before resting it upon his chest, feeling his now normalized heart beat. "I knew I had to make amends."  
  
He responded, a bit of frustration on his voice. "There are better ways to get into my good graces..."  
  
"No." She sighed. "There was a task that my sister asked that was too great a burden for me... so I never completed it." He stared at nothing, still listening, but his thoughts were now back on Kitana. "I must do this." Those same fingers that sat between his now mitigated wounds, disappeared, her speed reflected by how fast she had grabbed the base of his shaft.  
  
He wasn't made of stone. The feel of her skin against his... jogged so many memories of both love and pain.  
  
He never got to say goodbye.  
  
He broke.  
  
He asked... no, he begged, with a beleaguering whisper. "Make love to me like Kitana." Her strong but slender fingers began slow, to where he could feel the wall of sweat on her palm claim every ridge and wrinkle. His head corkscrewed to her, motioning for something, as Jade pulled down her face mask, her plush lips pressed into his. They kissed until the feel of her heavy cock met his back end, which made her reposition so she could adjust for him, a hand resting firmly on his spine.  
  
He exhaled hard as he felt her, and soon he was nothing but her sexual instrument, as she played him into forced whines and moans. Jade was an artist, knowing when and how to get him to tune the right notes with imprints of her fingers into his scarring or just applying a few more inches. His hand traced up her chocolatey thigh and his hand rested upon her large and graspable buttock, encouraging her to do more. He cringed at the feeling as she pumped harder into him.  
  
He grunted, groaned, his hand ripping and pulling at anything, his hand smashing a saucer and jug to the ground, water spilling into the soil, his leg limp as he shot across it, her boiling cum not far behind as she planted it deep - her cock like a steel pole inside him, unwavering, even as he had gone soft, she didn't - on instinct, he tried to crawl away, but she was having none of it. Pinning him down like a fly on a sheet, treating his back like an accordion, her strong knees carrying his weak ones, she began drilling him into another orgasm.  
  
When all was said and done, he was out of breath and he could feel his heart accelerating. She was as cool as a cucumber though.  
  
"Are you satisfied?" Jade asked quite mechanically.  
  
He gulped, trying to regain his composure, before offering a stumbling "Yes."  
  
"As am I." That's when he felt her pull, and the sensation of her ejection was almost as satisfying as when she inserted it. Before he could even start to relax, she had saddled up to his side, her curved cock still throbbing, her thick foreskin swimming with her juices. He took it, the taste of salt overpowering as he gave an absentminded fondle of her large stones. Maybe it was the smell of her sweaty sack getting to him or the way she had touched him - both inside and out - but the passion felt real, not practiced. In some strange way, it felt like he was tributing Kitana by being with her only living blood. Maybe Jade felt the same way. He, her lover, Jade, her sister, embracing eachother in a way that they couldn't with her.  
  
Before anything further could happen, her digit met his chin and gently pushed him off. She threw back her hair, reapplying her mask as Jade began to step away.  
  
He reached over the side for her, like a sickly patient. "Wait... wait... how was her ceremony?"  
  
"Pleasant. A spectacle that would have been fit for a princess. You should have been there."  
  
He watched the swaying hips of his midnight lover disappear into the dark, before curling himself, feeling her warm seed leaving an emptiness inside.  
  
=============================  
  
He had wandered off from the camp, to the lake on the edge of the forest, which had served them well for drinking water and cleaning purposes. His fist tightened around the jug's handle. He needed the walk.  
  
From afar, he could see la luna reflecting off it. As he approached, a fish jumped, the image and moonlight shimmering in a ripple. He could see himself now, his distorted features coming back into focus. He audibly gasped, the soreness of his dry throat scratching. He came down to his knees, hands at the precipice, hanging over to see truly who he had become. It had been so long... the wisps of grey that resided over his younger features, confused. Maybe he should have just stayed ignorant.  
  
That's when he saw the shadowy gleam, forcing him up right, ready to attack.  
  
It couldn't be...  
  
It was not the gleam of her teeth, as they were as rotted to the core as she was. It was that glow of those eyes. He put one foot down, waiting, his eyes and ears ready and trained for the slightest hint of movement.  
  
With a rustle, he bolted towards it. Running on nothing but instinct, he scaled upwards, and before he hit the top of the treeline, he saw her - bedecked in so little that she may as well have not even bothered. A strange mixture of her untamed nature that didn't care to wear anything, and her civilized half that needed privacy, her EE breasts straining for dear life. He knew something else of hers must have been straining to be free.  
   
"You used to look sooooo cute-" She leaped back again, avoiding him as he leapt, as he delivered a strike that broke a chunk of bark and branches away like nothing. "Now you just look old."  
  
She was an itch that he couldn't get rid of. She lingered in his mind. Even after he believed his mind to be at peace, the haunting persisted till even now. He knew of one procedure that he could use to dispel her for good.  
  
Ripping those jaws apart.  
  
It was one thing to do what they had done to him in the flesh pits, it was another to continue existing under the facade of the one he loved. Her face poisoned the well of his love. Her kind could not continue to exist. He would make sure of it.  
  
"My name-"  
  
"You have no name beast!" He shouted, pointing accusingly at her. She may have hid her features, but he knew her well. He could imagine those mincing teeth even with that mouth cover.  
  
She continued, taking the tree as a dance partner as she dipped backward, recklessly falling before hooking her heel at the last second. "is Mileeeeeeeena."  
  
She was sickening to even listen to. He had no idea why he bothered to give chase. "I have no time for your games... I must rest for the morning."  
  
"YOUR CAMPAIGN OF WAR WILL SSSSSSURELY FAIL." She cackled impishly.  
  
"What makes you say that demon?"  
  
She laughed again, and it felt like she wouldn't stop. After coming down finally, she explained. "Me and my ssssssisters are scheduled to attack your army... then leave the rest to the tarkatans to deal with..."  
  
It was like getting caught without a blade in a sword fight. "A surprise attack!?"  
  
"Mmhmm... oh, now how did that get out?" Mileena's fingers began to trace along her tight pink outfit, pulling and pushing in different directions. "How careless of me." Her lewd behaviour only annoyed him. He looked away, biting down. Why would she tell him that?  
  
When he tried to find an answer, Mileena was already gone.  
  
He climbed down, heading back to camp; tired and embittered, he menaced a look once more into the hanging greenery.  
  
As he went to turn in for the night, candle light to his lips, he noticed something that stood out from his straw mattress. It was where Jade had... rested, near him.  
  
His hand raised the fine material, unfurled and unfastened. It was one of Kitana's arm bands. It was a dark blue with markings in turquoise of a symbol he didn't understand. His eyes followed the lines like a maze, trying hopelessly to find an answer that didn't exist. Maybe it was her families crest... maybe it was a phrase in her written language that meant something to her... He didn't know what to say. So he did what came naturally.  
  
He clutched it against his chest, falling back into the bed.  
  
He slept well that night.


	7. Tin Man

A boom of electricity rang, delivered with a precision strike to his chest. Collapsing back, he went for a breath, but it was nothing but pain.  
  
"Without a lung, do you still try?"  
  
He looked over himself for a moment, but rolled back to his feet regardless, where his head met Raiden's fingers. Like it was a gun, he just sort of stared to the point between the ridge of his nose.  
  
"Without vision, can you still fight?"  
  
Like a blast from a cannon, he was thrown back. Yet instead of splitting his head open against the floor, he twisted, catching himself up right. Then he waited. Shutting down everything but his instincts.  
  
The micro second of wind snap was enough for him to catch the fist before it could connect. He wished he could see the look on Raiden's face, yet he wouldn't be at all shocked if it was still the same one as it usually was. He lingered, both mentally and physically, waiting for that next part of the lesson.  
  
"Without your heart, would you still fight?"  
  
He paused, waiting for the pain.  
  
Yet nothing came.  
  
=============================  
  
Another knot and the final binding would be complete. Pulling once more, he secured it tight against his skin.  
  
Where the cuff would normally sit, rested an arm band that fed into the right sleeve of his now ripped shirt. He examined it forwards and back, as his elbow fell against his leg. It was about time he added some blue to his outfit.  
  
"You offered Shao Kahn passage." It was in no way a question of his actions.  
  
He didn't do much to recognize his presence. "I did what I had to."  
  
"YOU HAVE ONE MISSION. DO NOT FORGET IT." His shout was clear, but the lack of power in his eyes belied his hidden grievances. "Where is the student I taught patience to?"  
  
"You never taught me patience, Raiden. Not you, not your miles of books or hardships. You only taught me how to suffer in silence."  
  
"There is doubt."  
  
He breathed. "In me?"  
  
"No." The once student was perplexed. "Within me." This had been the most human he think he'd seen him. "When I first began your teachings, I truly did wonder why you were chosen - but with every challenge given, you never failed me... until now."  
  
He held up his medallion, following it like a compass. "It was just a lapse in judgment." Taking it, his palm circled it around, reflecting every inch of it with the sun, before covering it in darkness as he moved away from the glow of the entryway. "I thought I was doing the right thing."  
  
"I know love of her drives you, but it has also blinded you. Your only failure is against Shao Kahn -- and I fear that it'll happen again."  
  
He tried to think of something to say, to reassure him that he would heed his words  
  
"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"  
  
He turned, almost in a flip, to find her instead of his former master. He looked down once more, before letting his laurel hang. "No. Of course not." He stood, now walking in tandem around the perimeter with the blonde cop.  
  
"We've gotten word from all the other fronts, and everything is just about ready." It was hard to describe Sonya's tone. She wasn't excited per se, but very preoccupied with what was going on, as she buzzed about, explaining their best laid plans, sometimes skipping ahead of him just to get a read of his feelings. He nearly stepped into her. "You look like you've seen a ghost." A god to be exact. "Is there anything you want to talk about?"  
  
"Obligations... that's all. For my love Kitana, to Raiden, and even to people I've never met." He motioned to the few early bird risers. "Even to you."  
  
She seemed surprised, a crack of a grin beginning. "Me?"  
  
"Because I..." His eyes winced. "Couldn't stop what happened to you..." It took awhile before he got it out with a rushed mutter.  
  
Between an alley of tents, she inclined in on him, a hand on his shoulder that he tried to shirk. "Hey, we're in this together." He looked past her statuesque face and into those soft blues. She was strong. Strong like Kitana. Her gloved hand brought him to her. "What happened wasn't your fault." She kissed him. He felt her press into him, chest to bigger chest, his hands wrapping around her hourglass figure, getting a feel for how lean and mean she truly was, her hips melting into his grasp. It was only a taste however, as she pulled away, jerking out and away with her head. "Lets kick off some early morning rust before breakfast."  
  
=============================  
  
More than Sonya's pony tailed hair flailed about as she tried to catch him off guard. He swiftly caught her elbows in his palms, before dodging a striking blow that was aimed right at his face. "Come on! Swing at me!"  
  
"Believe me, this is good practice." He was in better spirits than before, his mind off the weight of the world.  
  
"Bullshit!" She spun a kick right at him, which he ducked under.  
  
"How about we make the stakes interesting?" They circled this patch of field they had trampled, her blue eyes were icey, his unrevealing. "Winner fucks the loser."  
  
That... bothered him. Sonya saw her opening, and struck him right above his solar plexus. Another grunt from her as she took another swing. "I heard what you two did last night."  
  
He caught her fist that time, unflinching.  
  
Sonya seemed a bit out of breath, still cocky despite that. He looked ashamed. Sheepish even. "I'm sorry." Was all he offered apologizing awkwardly, focusing his eyes at a broken piece of stalk. The first time she had seen a vulnerability in him. Maybe she thought she could use this. "It was... I was..." She pushed off him.  
  
"Vulnerable?"  
  
He didn't want to address it. Sonya's following volley was on the softer side. He could tell now she was holding something back. But why? She was the aggressor. "Yeah I've been vulnerable before... but not vulnerable enough to fuck my boyfriends brother!" Sonya performed a hand stand, flipping her legs over, before wrapping around his mid section.  
  
He didn't move for her.  
  
Wrapping his arms at the ankles of her combat boots, he flipped her in mid air like he would a dirty carpet, before sinking her down into the ground, and falling down on top of her. "Enough! ENOUGH!"  
  
Her neck shot from side to side, moaning slightly, then her eyes opened like nothing happened. She grinned with those glossy lips, eyes lowering into something he could only describe as 'craving.' "Guess you won." Then those legs were around him like a vice. Snug too.  
  
As he attempted to stand, she had wrung around him like a belt. He sunk back down in their cleared spot before demanding release - which she was completely impetuous to, no matter how he raised his voice or any of his attempts to push her off.  
  
She pressed a nail to his chest, making him stop his flailing against her, her eyes focused as he looked down with frustration. "If you really wanted me off, you could have just tickled me." Sonya let go of her tight lock.  
  
He stood, with Sonya rising to her knees. She yelped out as he grabbed her hair. "I didn't say I wasn't going to fuck you." Reaching in, he began dangling his cock before her. He slapped her across the mouth with his tip, which she pouted out in response, as he left sticky strands on those full lips, before inserting his prick past them like they were the folds of a cunt. "Suck me, Sonya." She acquiesced with rapidfire head bobs, while popping open her vest -- her voluptuous breasts jumping out in full view before she began pinching herself vigorously, snatching at them with repeated passes, but it wasn't enough for her, his eyes like a sentries scanning for her fingers as they snaked down below, first gripping at her own seething hardness beneath her leather pants, before ultimately dropping trou.  
  
Sonya slicked his knob while pleasuring herself effortlessly. Seeing her now so excited to suck his cock forced his hand. Adjusting Sonya by her ponytail, he made sure to angle her so she could really taste it.  
  
"That's right. Swallow it all." He exhaled briskly, letting her know he was pleased with her abilities as a cocksucker, as she drunk him in with squirty sounding suckles of his cum, coming up for air, but not before nibbling on the side of his frenulum.  
  
He ordered her to stand at attention, which she did with pure zest. Like an animal in heat, she stood bent over, her arms long enough to reach the dirt to hold herself steady. He gave her a smack, coyly asking "You're used to this position, aren't you?" with Sonya responding with a hearty throated 'mmhmmph', parting her globes, he displayed her pink hole - an inviting crinkle to say the least. He gave it a once over lick - a mixture of sweetness and harshness rolled together - before spying a look at her smooth baubles, her cock as hungry as her ass. Presenting forth, he pushed past her barrier. He listened as he could hear her hushed sounds of straining to accept his girth, her orifice sucking and wrapping him into her warmth.  
  
The cough medicine pink puckering finally settled, as he began sliding into her like a saw; a very deliberate movement, before picking up a faster pace. Her meaty ass bubbled and bounced with every long broad stroke he delivered into her backend. She relished it, sucking in on those pearly whites, smirking his way knowingly, her eyebrows flaring up. "Come on and fuck me!" Sonya begged with a lusty growl, before enthralling herself into the proceedings again. Her tits wobbled and wavered with each of his thrusts, clattering together with near precision.  
  
He closed his eyes, letting that part of himself go. "So you wanna get fucked?" His arm darted out and around her neck in a snap - her face of someone knowing they had just made a mistake. Yet her fear slipped away as her pupils nearly hit the back of her head as he rode roughshod into her, their bodies clapping almost like drumfire before a powerful orgasm overtook him, exploding deep within the cove of her ass. A tendon in her throat ran taut, as Sonya nearly shrieked, coming out as more of a muffled squeal.  
  
Sonya fell to pieces; as if she had just fallen asleep, her wrist on her forehead, her body racked with sweat. He still throbbed, staring at her partially nude form. She was like a beach babe who hadn't had her sun tan applied, so he was gonna oblige her. His tongue traced up her deceptively soft yet rigid feeling navel - like a slug, he made his slimy mark all the way to a beauty mark that sat betwixt her cleavage which is where he soon found his manhood, hands atop her hefty mounds, diamond like nipples imprinting on his palms. He started with a massage, grinding the ample breasts against his cock, they were like fatty pillows compared to the rest of her stiff body, pliable with each clockwise rub.  
  
Sonya seemed almost embarrassed, not acknowledging him as he humped her, before finally squeezing them together herself. She seemed almost neutral to it, seeming like she just wanted to tell him to hurry up.  
  
Despite it being his third, it was still as copious in volume as ever - her eyelids like butterfly wings as they shut rapidly on reflex each time he splattered her nearly alabaster skin.  
  
He was as spent as she was, as he laid next beside her in the dirt. He thought about staring up at the clouds, but watching Sonya clean up the mess he had made was much more interesting. Yet something about how she did it made him wonder about something she had said and why she seemed so agreeable to his wiles.  
  
"You mentioned a boyfriend?"  
  
Sonya sucked down the last drop of his seed from her finger before getting into it. "Kind of a long story, but there's this guy on another frontline. He's a little arrogant, got a bit of an ego... a huge one, actually... but, deep down, he's a good person. I worry about him..." Sonya's voice grew gradually despondent, seemingly reminiscing with each sentence.  
  
Maybe he should have asked her earlier. "So why screw around with me?"  
  
Sonya shrugged. "We agreed not to make a big deal of the relationship until after everything was settled. The Gods only know how many women he's bedded the past couple nights."  
  
It hurt him to ask. "What if he had been faithful?"  
  
She was incredulous to that.  
  
=============================  
  
Emerging from the field, they gave each other knowing looks, their bodies side by side with one another.  
  
He came to a stop. Sonya struck a violent pose, white knuckling beneath her gloves.  
  
There, Sheeva stood. Her chin upturned, still no hint of a smile and little change in her features when she saw him. "Greetings."  
  
"Hello Sheeva." He tried to calm his partner; maybe Sonya could take her, but he wasn't willing to risk it today. "You come at a bad time -- so close to battle, when paranoia is at its highest. Are you sure you know where your loyalties lie?"  
  
"If the judgement of this plane is to be decided -- then I wish to be involved with that decision." Her fist curled. "There is no honor in cowardice."  
  
"You've come a long way, rockthár." Sheeva seemed to appreciate a joke for once. He'd leave the rest up to Sonya. "Get her integrated."  
  
Standing by her knee, shorter than her and shorter than he, was what he imagined to be his replacement, as Sheeva rested a relaxed, yet protective hand on top of his head while discussing matters with Sonya. He almost wanted to smile, realising he hadn't even noticed him while they were talking to the hulking woman, but there was a commotion that his eyes tracked, and his body followed, as several men carried the wounded into a red crossed tent. He half heartedly dashed, slowing because he knew they weren't going anywhere.  
  
The one still with some cognition and a bandage around his eye was propped against a chair. He was skittish, afraid, the water in his cup shaking over the rim. He was a familiar face, having been a part of a scouting party. "What happened?" He asked plainly.  
  
"We were... ambushed by Tarkatans..." The man wouldn't stop fidgeting. Not that he could blame him. "We knew we had no chance... there were so many... then from nowhere, these creatures... they were like women... but they were much more like naked, barbaric, monsters... they killed the Tarkatans..." The injured scout froze. "Most of us got away, but... they made off with some of our men."  
  
He looked past everyone, like his soul just left the room, personally knowing the horrors that were in store for them.  
  
_Mileena..._  
  
=============================  
  
Beating with a gallop on his steed, with a wild yet dark cropped mane that reminded him of Sheeva, and a golden coat that reminded him of Sonya, he had crossed the battle lines, like a thrown javelin, thankful to those brave enough to help him shatter the formations. His path had been drawn. Yet there was such a force... a pure radiance of evil, that he was sure he could have found it without the study of a map.  
  
Tying the reigns, he circled to the entrance, sizing it up as he went along. It was anything but palatial - definitely not the location one would aspire to exchange vows from, yet ghostly church bells sang out in reverie - vivid imagery of a regalia filled grand hall with Kitana in a thin veil, a faceless procession of people accompanying her - then in a flash, it was just him and her and a preacher in a private ceremony. Whether raucous or some place detached from prying eyes, he wondered what kind of wedding they would have had - and although he thought he knew the answer, he would have given anything to know what Kitana actually would have done. Either way, he knew that beyond the chamber doors to this chapel would be the answer to his creation, and whether he lived up to it.  
  
Cultists lay strewn about in shades of dark purple and red velvet, their screams of pain trapped on their expressions. Markings of varying origins were chalked or lit up with still wet blood candles, all leading their way to Kahn. With his back to him, he stood staring into a stained glass window that shone in light like his own personal halo.  
  
There was indeed something supernatural, as he felt another presence join them. Not Raiden... but... Kitana. Kitana was with him. He knew it. He sensed it.  
  
"So, warrior... I can't even call you champion, not like your past predecessor. My dear, sweet, Kitana -- choosing a pauper instead of a prince."  
  
"Are you still foolish enough to think anybody would believe that lie?"  
  
"No, but you're foolish enough to come here."  
  
"I'm not the one who set in motion their own demise."  
  
"Is that from your mouth or Raidens? Fah. It's harder and harder to stay true to ones self, is it not? Many moons ago you were just a boy, now you have the temerity to think you wield the power of a god." Without any subtlety or stealth, he dislodged a hammer from whence it sat, easily anchoring it above his wide brawn, resting it near his stump of a neck. "Because only a god could kill me."  
  
RAAAAAAAAAAGH  
  
Kahn jumped and landed with sheer ferocity, bringing down the brunt of his weapon on the head of one of the bodies, crunching it like a bone filled melon, and even as he rolled out of the picture, Kahn swung again with such deftness that it could have take his arm off if it connected. Yet, just as he thought he had escaped, he was shoulder tackled, sending him hurtling into a stone wall. Before he could move again, Kahn tossed his hammer -- he heard it crumble the wall as the top end wedged itself, the handle catching him before he could go anywhere.  
  
Kahn moved in.  
  
Throwing lightning fists, Kahn rocked his jaw along with several gut punches that would have destroyed solid granite with ease, before admiring his handiwork.  
  
He responded with an uppercut.  
  
Kahn was not prepared for that. Then again, few who consider themselves on the level with the divine rarely expect to land on their ass. Especially when they were the biggest guy in the room. He stepped forward, the hammer falling from its place with a steely thud. It wasn't a god he had to worry about, but it looked like he hit home with the fear of one.  
  
Alarmed, Kahn went for a vase filled with pikes that had flint ends - like pencils in a mug, they rattled from Kahn's nervousness, but he retrieved the one he thought would strike him down; the point sharp and obvious. Kahn used it to keep the distance between them, before vaulting it forward at him. As he moved to dodge, keeping his eye on the horned stick, Kahn seized the opportunity with a brutal kick that felt like he had taken both barrels of a mules hooves, which made him land hard. Before he could scramble up, Kahn was already above to take advantage. He did his best to utilize Kitana's bracer to deflect the final blows Shao Kahn tried to dish out in spades, only to catch the point in his shoulder, causing him to shout in a writhing, robotic way, before reaching for the now open wound, as Kahn rended the weapon from his flesh.  
  
"Like Liu Kang before you, you are another failure of Raiden's methods." He wasn't paying attention to Kahn. Now praying, the side of his face against the cold stonework, thinking of his own mortality.  
  
Thinking of who he could spend the rest of eternity with.  
  
If there was any reason to go on, he asked for a sign.  
  
A glint of something caught his eye - unsure of where they came from exactly. "One more thing - Kitana wasn't even good enough for me to fuck as she died slowly and miserably." Kahn heaved back the spear, ready for the kill, but unbeknownst to Kahn was something clenched in shadows - the neck of the javelin was diverted with a side guard, before he dug it into the achilles heel of the warlord. The skullfaced oppressor recoiled for a moment, but still managed to bring it down again, which was all the time he needed to roll out from under the intended target.  
  
With another sai in hand, he stood ready, taunting him with an expert twirl of it. Kahn stared, frustrated, teeth bared. Something about the weaponry he held told a bigger story he wasn't privy to. Kahn tossed his spear, then rushed recklessly into him.  
  
Kahn coughed up blood.  
  
He had countered with a simple deflection of the thrown projectile, but held the ball of his other sai to the middle of his rib cage, piercing it through Kahn. He expected his own bones to break, to compress, maybe to crush his heart.  
  
The mini behemoth collapsed, bloodletting like a punctured wine casket. His breathing now heavy behind the mask. He tried to crawl back, only hitting an altar with his faltering crown, still trying to think of a way out, a way to fight.  
  
Was this how Kitana felt?  
  
He crouched, the unsturdy hand of Kahn reaching. He simply jabbed him in the eye.  
  
"I thought long about how I'd kill you -- slow. Very slow. Yet seeing you even breathe another moment I realise now that you are just an affront to my love of Kitana. Blinking you out of existence wouldn't be fast enough."  
  
He ripped through Kahn's chest with the point of his fist. He only thought it appropriate the hand the heirloom was attached to should do the honors.  
  
He crushed the tyrant's, black, blood pumping, organ. He could feel the infusion of the soul energy begin to burn - but he never let up for a moment - soon having to combine the effort of his other hand, as he enclosed around it. An influx of power ripped through the building, creating a vacuum of gust that torpedoed, causing glass from all directions to crash in.  
  
He could feel how it compacted, the muscles bursting, and with one final desperate choke, it withered from between his hands, falling to the ground.  
  
The only sign of Kahn's spirit was a steaming skeleton.  
  
Truly he had cleansed this place of evil.  
  
With hands drenched in the aborted life, locked in the same way he had delivered the death blow, he walked down the stone steps, a frustration looming. When his feet touched grass again, he couldn't help but to take stock. From the moldy plasma between his nails, the bruise taking a colored shape on his torso, the open weeping gash and now the thumping in his inner ear -- all to this:  
  
What had been the point?  
  
That was the question left - a question he felt like he couldn't answer. Nothing had made sense about his arrival, and the only thing of reason being this woman who took him into her arms...  
  
His head tilted, his hand clutching the blue brace.  
  
_You were always with me Kitana... I was just never there for you..._  
  
Timing his arrival, he waited for the words to follow. He expected to be chided - maybe for not killing the false emperor hard enough. When there was quiet, he turned to meet Raiden - only to see the man with the brim of his hat down. Something he hadn't seen since he finished his training. With a solemn bow in return, he knew when he raised his head again, it would no longer be student and teacher, it'd be two equals.  
  
"I know without your love for Kitana, you would have never survived the trials you had to face. For your success, I offer you this" His closed palm opened, revealing nothing. A familiar feeling creeping over him as he watched the thunder god intently.  
  
"The truth."  
  
The thunder god was always unreadable.  
  
"As you know, your ascendance to our realm was no accident - but more than just your arrival that night was engineered by the gods."  
  
The feeling was now a sinking pit, and he had fallen right into it.  
  
"The elder gods needed an imperative for you to strive for, and as was true of Liu Kang, his love for Kitana drove him, but their bonds came naturally. We didn't have the time for you to do the same, so we transferred her love of the former champion..."  
  
Everything.  
  
Everything about what he believed and what he fought for was gone in an instant. He felt like he did when he saw her again. He wanted more than nothing for it to be an otherworldly fabrication beyond any measure, but he knew it wasn't. "You deceived me?" The venom in his voice nearly choking him.  
  
"All warfare is based on deception. It's the first thing I taught you. I did it for the fate of this world and others like it." That same tone. That belief of what he had done was right and just, without question for him and what he had done. "You had prowess to learn, yes, but you needed more than that."  
  
He tore the hanging insignia from his chest, throwing the medallion before his feet. Raiden's eyes followed it, still unyielding to his wrong doing. "Tread lightly thunder god, for next we meet, know I no longer walk the same path of peace." As he turned, he could feel his presence wane and turn to vapor.  
  
Looking around himself for a moment, the sound of silence echoing his solitude; but he knew he wasn't alone as he stared up above.  
  
He wished he could burn the heavens.  
  
=============================  
  
Without Kahn's lifeforce to power the summoned curses, breaking the pacts, the creatures that lead the hordes dissipated back to their realms of Chaos or Nether, and without those to wield the banners of propaganda, left the mutants confused. Tarkatans now proved far more interested in the bodies, acting as carrion eaters to the aftermath. Those still loyal eventually surrendered or made their last stands. There was rejoicing, but most Edenians just returned home to proclaim the end of the war to their loved ones.  
  
They had relied on him once - funny how some things don't go both ways.  
  
The celebration was cold to him. Yet what right did he have to complain? They had lost those dearest to them as well. Maybe it's because they fought for something they believed in, and ultimately, he had nothing to show for it.  
  
That stung the most.  
  
He turned down the flap when Sonya approached. She peered in with a light and goofy attitude. "Hey ya big lug, I thought you'd be out making a speech or something."  
  
With muted reserve, he just shook his head. "Not my fight. Not my victory."  
  
"Not your fight!?" She yanked him with surprising strength, pulling him out of his doldrums and out of his home base. He watched them drinking in merriment. Arms in mirthful embraces, even dancing before bonfires; the smell of chicken and spices roasting. Besides wondering where the tree and gifts were, it did little to absolve him as she spoke of his supposed accolades.  
  
From the crowd, a man in mirrored shades waved, calling out to his second in command - blowing off two women that had been hanging onto his shredded body.  
  
Sonya rolled her eyes at that, before looking to him, maybe wanting more than a dead fished expression. "Take it from someone who wasn't there for the person they loved, Sonya. Go to him." He saw her off, having no qualms of what it was between them.  
  
He returned to his business as he lingered over Edenia... fingers tracing lines... lines of a kingdom that meant nothing to him anymore, looking for that place that didn't remind him of her - realising soon that there was only one place for that, as he looked to where the map wasn't.  
  
"COME ALONG-! HOLD IT STEADY!" A mild scuffle outside. He hoped it wasn't infighting.  
  
"Sir. We caught this... thing, skulking around the camp." He didn't even look.  
  
"She is a twisted manifestation created by Shao Kahn and his ilk. Let it go." His head hung. He wanted no more blood shed.  
  
"But she requested to see you." He made his frustration obvious, bringing down his fist.  
  
"Leave her then. You two. Dismissed." They left in a hurry.  
  
He tried to work up the nerve, his hand running over his face. He sauntered over to her. She was like a lost child, unsure of herself and her surroundings, her eyes darting up and down. As different as they were, he felt a strange connection between them.  
  
"I believe, these are yours." Drawing the sais, they clinked together as he held them out to her. As expected, she responded like that of an animal, scared of whether or not to take up a human offering them spoils. He felt like he had finally accomplished something to his credit when she reciprocated.  
  
Mileena guarded them closely. "Did the fleshling like Mileena's gift?" She asked with a knowing, devilish undertone.  
  
"Why'd you do it? Why help me?"  
  
Mileena played with her toys like they were knitting needles, striding past him. "Kahn had my kind cast out of his kingdom when he no longer needed us. He was the traitor and still expected us to help him."  
  
So. Petty revenge. He knew what that was like. "So you got your retribution. What brings you here?"  
  
She sighed. "We have no place with the Edenians - and we wouldn't survive among the Tarkatans. I chose you because you are not like the others..."  
  
He was puzzled. "Chose me?"  
  
"Yes. I remember you... in the dungeon... I never wanted to hurt you... I just wanted to be with you..." She smiled as meekly as someone with a shark jaw could. Her eyes read of sincerity, but that was just a gut reaction on his part. How could he believe her? This... this thing... that tastelessly borrowed the image of Kitana and thought it could just waltz into his life...  
  
He studied her - mainly that beautiful form of hers, that lead up to such a shocking visage that could crack a mirror. Ultimately, he turned away from her in disgust. "I'm not looking for a replacement."  
  
She closed in on him, her hands on him. "That was the purpose of my creation. To replace Kitana." He struck down that notion down - as well as Mileena.  
  
How dare she. "You could never replace her."  
  
She wiped her hand across her chin with a gutteral hiss, before standing like nothing had just happened. Still acting like before, now wrapping a leg around his body, her seduction unabated. "Your pent up aggressions... I can deal with them..." Her hand now meeting his face, caressing him.  
  
Even he was weak to the smell of the nectar that this venus flytrap offered, as he allowed himself to begin falling for it, before opening his narrowed eyes onto her. "Do you know of love, creature?"  
  
She pulled away as if he was suddenly made of fire, not expecting such a question. "Is it... is it like a sorcerer's magic?"  
  
He wanted to play with her. Make use of her ignorance for his own amusement.  
  
Yet he couldn't.  
  
"In some ways, yes." He lifted her into his view, cupping her face, pressing into the bones that formed the firm ridgeline of her maw -- before death defying by reaching into her trap jaw; Mileena's teeth and hot tongue nuzzling his thumb.  
  
It was time to make the best of things.  
  
With her in tow, he stepped into the crescendo of lights and sounds of fireworks. He followed them, seeing bits fall unfettered in the sky, almost like stars, before disappearing.  
  
They would be doing likewise.  
  
He thought he understood love. He thought it was something immutable. It was clear now it could be rerouted, that it could be abused.  
  
Nothing was 100% pure.  
  
That scared him -- because he was willing to give his life for it - to surrender to death to be with her again. He couldn't deny he loved Kitana. That was a part of him now.  
  
By all accounts, Mileena was an abomination, but maybe... because she was a clone of Kitana, there was still some good in her... somewhere... a side of her he hadn't seen, and that would be the catalyst maybe not for love, but something.  
  
After all, Kitana's love for him was concocted by mad gods, while Mileena was made by men in a lab playing god.  
  
What's one lie for another?  



End file.
